Summary: The "Tainted" series finally comes to The Library of Agrabah. After Mozenrath fails to posess Aladdin's body, the dying sorcerer sets his sights on another streetrat- Dhandi. Will Eden be able to protect her master from the wicked intentions of the sorcerer?
Rating: PG
Categories: Aladdin
Characters: Other, Genie, Mozenrath
Genres: Action/Adventure, Dark/Angst, General
Warnings: None
Challenges: None
Series: None
Published: 07/22/05
Updated: 08/01/05
Index
Chapter 1: Bedtime Stories
Chapter 2: Abduction
Chapter 3: Cassia Divides, Myrrh Leads
Chapter 4: A Dream is a Wish Your Heart Makes
Chapter 5: Imaginary Friends
Chapter 6: Lessons and Leaps
Chapter 7: Apprentice and Master
Chapter 8: Explainations
Chapter 9: Departure
Chapter 10: Preparation
Chapter 11: Dance for Me
Chapter 12: Out-of-Show-Experience
Chapter 13: Almost Over
Chapter 14: Homunculus
Chapter 15: Must Be Kind, Only to Be Cruel
Chapter 16: Paper Memories
Chapter 1: Bedtime Stories
The crescent moon smiled over the slumbering populace of Agrabah, though in one dilapidated hovel, near the piers, someone was wide-awake.
"Eden? Eden!" Dhandi stared deep into the pink bottle. Soon enough, Eden, the green-skinned djinn, smoked out of her bottle, yawning and with a mud mask plastered on her face. Removing cucumber slices from her eyes, she looked down at her young charge, sleepily.
"Dhandi," she yawned, "I thought you said you were tired and you know what they say, 'early to bed'..."
"Yeah, I know," Dhandi smiled warmly at her genie. "I couldn't sleep."
"Oh," Eden, with a shake, swiped her mask off and hovered closer to the young girl, "you having a bad dream?"
The girl shrugged. "I just can't fall asleep."
"Well," Eden grinned, "let's see what we can do about that, suga." She turned into a rather buxom grandmother. "How about a story, dearie?"
"Actually," the girl crawled up into her genie's lap, "what if I tell you one?"
"All-righty then," Eden reverted to her normal curvaceous form. "Shoot."
Dhandi giggled quietly as she drummed her fingers against her scrawny leg. "Oh, I got it," she exclaimed. "It's kinda old, but it's a good one."
"Oldies are always goodies," Eden grinned. "Like me!"
Dhandi smiled. "Okay, um, a very long time ago, before there was any people in the world, even genies, Allah wanted to make people, because he felt lonely."
"Hm, good," Eden whispered, as she ran her fingers through her mistress' coarse brown hair. "Go on."
"So he created creatures from light. They were the angels. Then he made the genies out of fire."
"You bet your buns he did," Eden remarked, licking her finger and pressing it against her thigh, producing a hiss.
"Then he started making people out of clay," Dhandi continued. "Some say that people were going to have wings."
Eden chuckled quietly. "And I bet you would have touched to sky seventeen billion times."
"Yeah," she grinned. "But then one of his helpers started to get jealous of the people that Allah was going to create, so he started messing with them at night, made them all ugly and gross."
"That's not nice of him."
"Nope and one night Allah stopped him. He asked 'why do you do this'. His helper replied 'how do you know he won't be bad, like some of the genies are?' Allah became mad at him and sent his helper away to the bad place. He hasn't spoken to him since."
"That's kinda sad."
"Yeah," Dhandi sighed, sliding out of Eden's lap, "but that's kinda how some things are."
Eden looked at her charge uneasily. Sure, Dhandi was not exactly the most forlorn of Agrabah's orphans. As far as she knew about her, she kept an optimistic view in spite of all the strange things that happen in the city. Heck, she nearly freed Eden so she could be with her big blue beau, the Genie of the Lamp. However, she couldn't help but think that her little girl was feeling the stress of poverty and that she didn't have a family. A real family. It wouldn't be long until she started asking about how her body was changing as she would grow older or even if she was ready to head out on her own as an adult. If she would even be an adult.
"But there are good things too," Dhandi said. "Like you." Breaking away from her worry, Eden smiled as she leaned towards the child.
"Oh, you sweet meydele," she cooed, picking the girl's dirty cheek. "You're making me blush."
Dhandi playfully swiped away her hand, only to have it grab at her nose.
"You feeling better?" Eden asked. Dhandi nodded quickly. "Good, now go to bed, 'kay?"
Dhandi crawled on to one of the few massive overstuffed cushions that decorated the sparse hovel and curled up. Eden floated over to her and pulled an intricately detailed rug over the slumbering form.
"Goodnight, sweetheart," the djinn whispered, planting kiss on the child's forehead. Dhandi softly squirmed in her sleep as Eden, in wisp of smoke, sucked back into her bottle.
Meanwhile, the moon was also shining down on another insomnia-struck person that night in the Citadel in the abysmal Land of Black Sand.
Trudging with several volumes of ancient texts, Mozenrath slumped against the wall of the library, breathing heavily. His normally pallid and slender face, sucked in even more, now resembled a cadaver with his now wispy white curls framing it. He had been worse for wear since he returned to his lands, thwarted once again by that accursed street rat.
"Master sick?" Xerxes, his eel-familiar hovered next to him.
"No, I'm at the peak of health," Mozenrath sneered, sarcastically. "Just get me a staff or something." The eel swam through the air and towards a smooth black rod, decorated with red and gold pentagrams. He wrapped his razor jaws around it, flying awkwardly while trying to hold on to it properly.
His master sighed.
"If only that street rat hadn't fought back..." he seethed, grabbing the rod and vigorously shook Xerxes off. The eel tumbled in the air as he floated back into a straight line. His master, on the other hand, wobbled violently upon his legs as he fell forward upon the ebony table and now sprawled on it, books flung to the other side of the table. He cursed silently, slamming his bony fist. Xerxes swam to his master, sniffing his turban. Mozenrath suddenly grabbed the eel by its throat and pulled it closer.
"Have you found it yet?" he snarled at the eel, its face turning blue.
"Gauntlet found not yet," Xerxes rasped, struggling to breathe.
"Find it now." The grip upon the eel's throat loosened and Xerxes scampered away. Mozenrath looked at his hand. The gauntlet that had covered his hand of clean ivory bone had been lost since his last encounter with Aladdin, when he had tried to take his body. He had less time now since then and even without the gauntlet upon his hand, he could still feel it draining him. He was dying, sucked dry just as Destane had cursed him before his demise.
He reached for the tomes and began to flipping through them.
"No," he muttered as he read the musty pages. "Tried it...failed...Allah, no..."
His eyes focused as he read the title- Reanimation through Construction. His dull eyes glistened as he read the page intently.
"Has potential," he said, "but I don't have enough time. Unless..." He flipped back three pages. His mouth formed a predatory smile.
"Master!" Xerxes rasped, "Gauntlet found!" Mozenrath looked up, his tired eyes revealing deviousness.
"Good, Xerxes," he managed a horrible grin. "Prepare for tomorrow. We're going shopping."
Chapter 2: Abduction
The following morning in the hovel, Eden was multi-armed like an octopus, one hand brushing her teeth, another applying mascara, and about six other arms hard at work, fulfilling multiple tasks for their owner. Dhandi knew she was getting ready for an outing with the Genie of the Lamp; a great sky blue being that often brought a smile upon her face. He belonged to Aladdin, who had been a street kid like her. She hadn't seen either of the two in a long while, knowing that Aladdin recently wedded the Princess and possibly the pair were still on their honeymoon. Dhandi had asked Eden what people do on a honeymoon a while ago, only to be met with sheepish giggles, the kind Genie did when he was around her.
"So, where you and Genie going this time?" Dhandi asked.
"Oh, nowhere in particular," Eden answered as she plucked her eyebrows.
"Come on," Dhandi whined a little, "Please." The girl unleashed her greatest method of guilting an answer out of person; she stuck out her lower lip and, with big soulful eyes, pouted.
"Oh, not the puppy pout," Eden moaned dramatically. Gazing once again her charge, she gives in. "All right, it's this adorable little place. I think it's called Pompeii or something. Anyway, he said the House of Faun is to die for."
"Wow."
Eden's extra arms are sucked back in as she makes one last vanity check.
"How do I look?"
"You look nice."
"Nice as in 'sweet yet sexy in a sort of platonic way'," Eden asked, posing flirtatiously, "or 'adorable and kissable but still mature'?"
"I wouldn't worry about it," Dhandi replied. "He likes you. I bet he'll still like you even if you show up in...what I'm wearing."
"You're on," Eden said, twirling around. When she stopped, she is wearing Dhandi's ragged orange dress with the dusty brown coat. She even had Dhandi's untidy hair, down to the last out of place strand. The real Dhandi smiled broadly.
"We so both look so fab-BU-las!" the djinn declared in a valley girl voice. Dhandi's smile became rather sheepish as she looked down at her own appearance.
"Hey, baby," Reverting back to her 'normal' form, Eden knelt down to her master, "don't worry about what they say."
"I'll try not to," Dhandi said, uncomfortably. "I think they wait for me."
"Well, if they hurt you, I'll give them what for." Eden shadowboxed with the wall. The girl chuckled. The djinn composed herself and fixed her eyes on the girl like a drill sergeant.
"So, while I'm gone, you do what?"
"Stay with my friends or Father Habya binGud," Dhandi stated like a cadet to her commander, down to the erect posture.
"You talk to who?"
"Nobody 'cept for my friends and Father binGud."
"That's my girl," Eden beamed proudly. "Now, food's in the fridge when you get back and if there's something wrong, just rub my bottle and I'll be here faster than you can say 'Sidney Sheldon'."
"I know," Dhandi hurried the Genie of the Bottle. "Don't keep him waiting." Eden took one final look at the hovel and with a twitch of her nose, vanished in a puff of green smoke. As soon as the smoke cleared, Dhandi darted down the steps of the hovel, the bottle in hand.
"Hey, Dhandi!" a boy's voice echoed in the stairwell as she was coming down. She knew him as Babkak and with the sound of urgency in his tone, he wasn't too happy with her.
"Hurry up! We're gonna be late!"
"All right!" Dhandi made it out of the hovel and, with the squat Babkak at her side, began running through the street.
In the noisy bartering and transactions made in the bustling marketplace of Agrabah, Mozenrath hobbled his way amidst the crowd. No one would think twice to look the sorcerer, donning the brown cowl he would often wear when he didn't want to be recognized. As if anybody would now that he more closely resembled one of his mamluks than the handsome young man he fancied himself to be.
That he hoped to be once more.
"OUT OF THE WAY, OLD MAN!" Hearing the heavy and rapid trotting of horses' heavy hooves, Mozenrath tripped aside and clung to the bricks of a wall as a massive cart rumbled by.
"WATCH WHERE YOU'RE GOIN' OR THERE'LL BE ONE LESS BEGGAR ON THE STREET!" the cart driver of a great girth bellowed, throwing an apple core at the quivering Mozenrath. Sneering, the decrepit sorcerer lifted a gloved finger and a small blue fire ignited in front of the horses. They whinnied hoarsely as they reared in sight of the slowly rising flame, knocking the driver off. The driver dived to avoid being trampled upon by an oncoming cart, which swerved into a beam supporting a balcony of harem girls, which collapsed upon a fruit stand, its proprietor earning a broken arm and a bloody nose. Mozenrath smiled as he turned the corner, the melodious sounds of chaos singing in his ears.
"Now, if Xerxes will do his part," he said, lowering himself creakily down on a crate in the back of an alley. From out of the sleeve of his disguise, he pulled out a hookah and began to inhale the bitter opiate vapor.
"So what took you?" Babkak panted as he and Dhandi edged on, the mosque's dome on the horizon.
"I was saying goodbye to Mom," Dhandi simply put. Babkak stared at her, breathless.
"Wai-uh, I thought you didn't have a mom."
"Well, Eden's kinda a mom."
"Wha- that crazy green-skinned lady that hangs around you-"
"She's not crazy," Dhandi glared at him. "She's funny and she's always there for me."
"Yeah," Babkak muttered, "but what about that one time you got your head stuck in a jar and you were crying and-"
"Shut up," Dhandi snapped as she pointed to a group of kids approaching. "It's them."
"Should we run to binGud or hide?" the boy asked, getting ready to dive behind a nearby basket.
"No," Dhandi said, standing her ground as the group of seven lean yet rather burly-looking boys approached. Dhandi turned towards Babkak. The boy had vanished and the smirking boys confronted Dhandi, mental barbs ready to fly from their lips.
"Hiya, Dhandi," one of the boys greeted mockingly.
"Hiya, Asfour," Dhandi replied in the same tone. The one named Asfour sniffed. The other boys grumbled amongst themselves.
"So, where's Fatty? Did your boyfriend chicken out on you?"
Dhandi frowned. "He's not my boyfriend and this is about me, remember, and I'm sick of you picking on me."
Asfour and the boys snickered. "So?"
"So, I don't want to be picked on anymore," Dhandi stated, posture showing courage, but eyes screaming apprehension, "and if you keep doing it, y-you'll be sorry."
All attempts of holding back laughter failed and the hysterical guffaws echoed thunderously in the alleys.
"What are you gonna do?" Asfour asked, shaking from laughter. "Hit me?"
Suddenly, Dhandi swung her fist towards the boy. He dodged, the girl collapsing upon the street, face full of dirt. She rose to her feet, front covered in dirt and the boys laughing at her failure. She brushed herself off, only to come to the horrible realization that the bottle was not in her grasp, but rather in the hand of Asfour, who was pretending to knock back a drink.
"Oh, this yours?" he asked, mockingly. "Here." The bottle is dangled in front of her face, teasingly. Dhandi reached for it.
Asfour pulled it back and hurled it towards one of the boys. "KEEP AWAY!"
So thus, the cruel game of childhood began yet another rite of sadism and Dhandi was in the middle of it, desperately grabbing back and forth for her djinn's bottle.
"STOP IT!" Dhandi shrieked, ramming into the boy who was prepared to toss it next. He tripped backwards as the girl toppled upon him. The bottle flew from his grasp and as eyes stared, it fell down the well a few feet away with a heart-shattering splash. Dhandi knelt there on the ground as the boys gather around the well.
"Hey, it's floating!" one boy said.
"Nah, it's sinking," said another.
"You guys are idiots," Asfour asserted. "It's bobbing."
"Maybe if we threw pebbles at it..."
No one knew quite what happened in Dhandi's head that moment, but the boys soon found out as the girl knocked down Asfour and began furiously slapping him across the face, along with bites upon his right arm. The boy shrieked, terrified while the others watched like droopy-eyed sheep. Dhandi didn't care that Asfour was screaming or that a mountainous form was standing over her, very cross.
"Dhandi!" the form echoed and she looked up. A broad waisted man in a white turban and an uncomplicated off-white muslin robe stood there, arms crossed and normally gentle coffee-brown eyes glaring at her. Babkak stood behind him, avoiding eye contact. "Dhandi, why are you hurting Asfour?"
Dhandi rose to her feet, Asfour nervously scrambling to his. Her bare feet began tracing little lines in the sand, her mind formulating a suitable reason for her violence.
"Uh, um...he was picking on me?"
Father Habya binGud glanced at the tiny girl with disheveled hair and at Asfour, sporting a big black eye as well as a few bruises upon his arm.
"Children," the imam sighed, "go to the mosque. We are slightly behind and I would like you to catch up. Now hurry up."
The boys nodded in affirmation and darted pass binGud and Dhandi. Asfour limped away, smirking. As the last of the boys left the alley, binGud knelt down to the young girl.
"Tell me, what justifies you beating him up?"
"He does it to me everyday," Dhandi said. "He and those stupid boys-"
"No name-calling, Dhandi," he rose a finger up. "What was it?"
"He threw my bottle around." She pointed to the well. binGud looked at it, thoughtfully.
"I see. Did hurting him give you your bottle back?"
Dhandi sighed and gazed at the imam. "No."
"I'm rather disappointed in you," binGud said, concerned, "but since this is your first time, I'm merely going to give you a warning."
"Yes, sir."
"I want you to remember that you are going to face problems all your life and punching someone isn't the best course most of the time." The imam stroked his graying beard. "I still would like you to stand up for yourself, but next time, find a more peaceful way."
"Yes, sir."
Father binGud smiled gently at the girl. "When you're ready come in, get to your studies."
Dhandi nodded as binGud stood up and walked down the alley, turning his head back to the girl watchfully. The imam gone, Dhandi walked to the well, climbed upon its edge, and peered down. The pink bottle shimmered, the sunlight reflecting on the water. She turned to the bucket sitting next to her and carefully lowered it down, her outstretched hand guiding its drop. The splash informed her that the bucket had reached the bottom and as the rope grew taut in her grip, it was ready to pull up.
Dhandi leapt down, gravity helping her pull. The pulley rattled as the bucket rose higher. Holding to the rope somewhere in the middle, she climbed back up and leaned towards the bucket, the stopper of the bottle visible.
"Come on," she whispered, her fingers touching the rim. The handle creaked and water dribbled down her arm, soaking her sleeve and dress as it ran to her feet. Her eyes widen as she gripped the bottle's neck. Smiling, she rejoiced, flinging the bottle out. However, her smile contorted into a gasp of horror as she slips. The bottle flew out of her hand as she fell.
Moreover, the story would have ended with Dhandi's drowning in the well. However, that wasn't the case as it were, for the girl's hands, a matter of luck or good reflexes, gripped onto the rope.
Staring down at her dangling legs, Dhandi turned her focus to the one holding the rope.
"A-a dog?" The small tan and gray creature was pulling on the rope, struggling keeping it taut and sturdy. Coming back to herself, Dhandi swung her legs towards the rim of the well, her toes clinging to the stone. Her feet upon the stone, she pulled herself upon the rope, getting closer. She yelped once when the dog shook the rope slightly, but it kept sturdy.
Dhandi finally stood upright and leapt from the well. The dog let go of the rope and the bucket cascaded down the well, ending its descent with a splash. She stood there in the middle of the alley, staring at the tiny creature.
"Wow," she mouthed, dumbstruck. The dog barked, running around Dhandi and between her legs.
"Thank Allah for puppies," she giggled, picking the dog up. Her eyes fell on upon the worn brown collar around the dog's neck.
"Is someone looking for you?" The dog's response was a slobbery kiss covering the girl's face.
"Well," Dhandi said, eyes turning towards the mosque's dome in the skyline, "I can't really leave you behind, but you can't exactly come in with me..." The dog suddenly slid from her arms and, grabbing the bottle with his teeth, darted away.
"HEY!" Dhandi dashed after the creature, as it turned the corner. As she rounded the corner, she could hear the dog's high-pitched barking amidst the mountainous piles of rubbish bags. The girl cocked her head, mortified. She did not want to give the boys back at the mosque anymore incentive. Holding her nose, she ran through the alley, skipping over manure piles and filth that managed to escape from the bags as if walking on live coals.
Dhandi panted, slumping against the wall. She stared down at her shrinking shadow. Almost noon, she had missed the lesson and was on the verge of collapsing in an empty part of Agrabah. She began softly pounding her head against the brick when...
"Are you going to be using that head of yours later on?" a voice rasped curtly, "Because I have some nuts that need to be cracked." Dhandi lifted her head up and saw a figure, reclining upon a crate, dissipating smoke surrounding him like a ghostly aura. He was wearing a brown robe thing, she forgot what they were called, and had a hookah pipe in hand.
"Are you talking to me?" Dhandi replied with a question.
"Are you the only one here?"
"Yeah."
"Then I must be talking to you," the figure replied. A tiny yip was heard and from beneath the hem, the tan and gray dog emerged. Dhandi's eyes widen as the dog greeted her, leaping into her arms.
"Oh, is he your dog?" she asked, struggling to keep him from fidgeting. "Hey!"
"Was," the figure looked up. Dhandi was taken back by how much he resembled a mummy. "You see, I'm not long for this world and I need someone to take care of my dog."
Dhandi looked at the dog, staring back at her.
"He's a good dog."
She stroked the dog's fur, cooing. The dog opened his jaws, probably to speak. However, two cobra-like fangs appeared and sunk quickly into Dhandi's arm, prompting her to shriek in pain.
"He bites though," the man added, insincere concern mingled in his tone. Dhandi threw the dog off her, stumbling away as the poison quickly coursed through her. The alley seemed to tilt whenever she walked forward, her eyes heavy. Her head was light as if someone replaced it with a balloon. Her legs, however, became heavy pillars of lead, slumping into the ground. Panic fills her. She wanted to go home and be safe with Eden, but she also just wanted to sleep.
As the child drooped to the ground completely, Mozenrath slowly rose from his seat and hobbled over to the fallen.
"Good job, Xerxes," he said to his familiar, morphing out of its puppy disguise. "And it appears he had a little something for us too." From his ragged sleeve, he pulled out Eden's bottle.
"Nap, nap," Xerxes cackled, sniffing the child's slumbering form. Mozenrath smirked and in a swirl of black and blue smoke, the sorcerer, Xerxes, and Dhandi vanished. All evidence left of the abduction was a chipped hookah and a few particles of sinister black sand, swirling in with the more benign dust of the alley.
Chapter 3: Cassia Divides, Myrrh Leads
When most kids wake up, they often see their mom or dad or another loved one, be it their dog or genie. For Dhandi, however, it was a mamluk. Eyes nearly popping out of their sockets, the girl shrieked, crab walking away from the corpse that stood listlessly in front of her. She curled up against the wall of dingy gray and shivered.
“Allah, protect me-Allah, protect me...” she prayed, expecting the creature to attack. A pause occurred and Dhandi looked up, realizing the mamluk didn’t budge from the spot all. With a sigh of relief, she stood up and looked around. The shackles attached to the wall as well as the abundance of cobwebs in the crevices and the dim light coming from a lone up high window gave her the impression that she was in a dungeon, very much like in the tales she told Eden and whenever a person in those tales is put in a dungeon, the ones who put them there wasn’t too far away.
“Hey,” Dhandi turned to the mamluk, “where is this place? Am I still in Agrabah?”
“Ur,” the mamluk grunted in response. Dhandi looked it, confused.
“Um, was that a ‘yes’ or a ‘no’?”
The mamluk grunted again. Dhandi sighed. The conversation was going nowhere and she still didn’t know where she was. She looked up again and a hopeful smile appeared on her face.
The window! Even if it were too small for an escape, she would still be able to have an idea where she was.
“Could you please give me a boost?” she asked the mamluk again. The mamluk grunted, inquiringly.
“Um, lift me up to the window?” She waited for it to answer. “Please?”
Suddenly, the mamluk reached down and grabbed Dhandi by the waist. The girl yelped, but then realized that it was merely doing what it was asked as she rose above its head towards the window.
“Thanks!” Dhandi stretched her arms towards the window and, gripping the ledge, pulled herself up the rest of the way. As was expected, the window was only a few feet high and a few inches wide, not big enough for her to escape. However, she leaned closer to the opening. To her shock, the entire city below her seemed to be covered in a dismal aura, as if created by the black sand that it rested upon. The sky would have been called night if there wasn’t a sun shining over in the horizon.
Dhandi clung to the ledge, mouth agape. She had only heard of the Land of Black Sand from the boastings of elderly travelers in the streets and on the piers, of how a wizard of great cruelty ruled the city, draining those who lived in the city of their emotions and their humanity. She looked down at the mamluk.
“I gotta find the bottle and get out of here,” she thought, “if I don’t wanna be all wrinkly like this guy.” She lowered herself from the ledge until she was just barely clinging to the window.
“Please put me down,” she asked. Suddenly the mamluk walked away from the wall and over to the door.
“Hey! Come back!” She stared down at the floor. A long way down. Dhandi gulped as her grip loosened. She had a feeling the landing was going to hurt as her fingers gave way.
Just then, she heard a ripping sound as she crashed to the ground. Surprised that she wasn’t sore, she looked around and her eyes widened when she found the cause underneath her. Her fall had been broken by the mamluk. Well, the mamluk’s arm anyway, which was squirming around like a beached fish.
“Uh,” Dhandi said to the mamluk, squeamishly picking up the writhing arm, “you might, uh, need this.” The mamluk grunted, grabbing the arm from her and fastened it back into its socket.
“You’re welcomed?” The mamluk stared blankly at the girl. Dhandi waved her hand quickly in front of its eyes.
“Um, hello?”
Suddenly the mamluk lunged at her, tightly wrapping her in its decaying arms.
“Hey!” Dhandi protested, struggling to get free of its embrace but to no avail. The mamluk carried Dhandi to the door.
“What are you doing?”
Xerxes gurgled, making faces at his reflection on the Bottle’s surface. Mamluks around him were trudging along large pots of clay, scratching the ebony tile of the bathroom. Clay broke as they emptied the contents into the large intricately decorated bath. Suddenly, Xerxes shrieked as palm wine splashed from its container and landed upon him. The eel chattered angrily at the clumsy mamluk, some words like “buffoon”, “no spill”, and “smell gross” are coherent in his dialogue.
“Are we having a tea party?” Mozenrath, or rather the mummy that used to be him, limped in. He leaned over the bath. The scent of myrrh, palm wine, camphor and cassia made him dizzy, forcing him to lean on his staff. In his head, he had wondered if it was deep enough. No chance of turning back now, he thought.
“Is he ready?” he asked, glaring at his familiar.
“Boy?” Xerxes asked.
“Is there anyone else in the dungeon? Get him here sometime before I’m a pile of dust!”
However, before his familiar was an inch away, Mozenrath grabbed Xerxes by its throat.
“You know what to do once I begin the ritual.”
Xerxes gurgled in affirmation and upon his throat’s release, he swam out the door. The sorcerer knelt down, mumbling to himself as if rehearsing a verse. The sounds of Dhandi struggling echoed down the hall. One can only hope the boy wasn’t going to fight back. Mozenrath couldn’t afford it.
Dhandi, along with the mamluk that held her, entered the bathroom and the first reaction was Dhandi’s face twisted in repugnance, her nose overwhelmed with the vapors of strong oils. Mozenrath chuckled as he limped towards a broken pillar. On top of the pillar, there stood two discolored ivory decanters, a flickering crimson candle, and an elegant silver blade. When he held up the blade, Dhandi squirmed, terrified of what he might do to her with it. He, however, held up his bare hand and, wincing, pressed the sharp edge against his now leather tough skin.
Dhandi silently gagged when Mozenrath balled his freshly cut hand, blood trickling down from the fist and into one of the decanter. In his gloved hand, he swirled it, the blood sloshing with other liquids that Dhandi couldn’t make out from afar.
“Blood guides the soul,” the sorcerer whispered, pulling out from a pouch white granules of natron, “Salt of the body binds it.” He sprinkled the natron into the decanter. A hissing sound resonated from the vessel. Staff in a shivering hand, he paces over to the squirming child. He held it up to Dhandi’s lips, which are firmly pressed together. She did not want to taste what was in there.
Rolling his eyes, Mozenrath suddenly swung his staff swiftly against her leg. Dhandi yelped and the sorcerer took this moment to pour it down her throat. Tearing up, the child retched at the saltiness of it, the potion reaching her gut, and pain began to stab her in her abdomen.
“Cassia divides, myrrh leads,” he continued, reaching for the other decanter. “Osiris bids it, Ereshkigal demands it.” Mozenrath gulped down the contents. Shaking, he drops the decanter. Dhandi sobbed hysterically, pain within intensifying. A wave of his hand and the mamluk released Dhandi, who collapsed to the tile floor writhing. Unsympathetically, the sorcerer grabbed her arm and dragged her to the edge of the bath.
The whimpering child at his feet, Mozenrath yanked his cape off as Xerxes swam back into the room, pulling the cape away with his teeth. Removing his turban next, his limp snow-white curls tumbled down his skeletal collar. Dhandi grabbed her stomach, beads of sweat rolling down her face. She didn’t want to be here. She wanted to be with Eden.
The bottle!
And it was right there in the corner! A sliver of hope still existed in Dhandi’s head. All she had to do was rub the bottle and Eden could take her away from this place and make her feel better.
Would he see her trying to get away?
Dhandi couldn’t wait to find out, so, grasping her stomach, she began crawling quickly. The bottle was within her grasp. She smiled, hopeful. She was going to be saved.
An inch away, however, she yelped as she was jerked back. Her fingernails clung to the tile, but not for long. Turning her head, Dhandi’s heart nearly stopped, realizing that a bleached skeleton’s arm had her by the ankle. In spite of the gauntlet in his mouth, Xerxes cackled as Mozenrath pulled the rebelling child back to his side. As frail looking as he had been reduced to, the sorcerer had a grip likened to a vise.
A wave of his hand and Dhandi swung to her feet, nearly knocking the sorcerer into the foul-smelling bath. Balance regained, Mozenrath wrapped his arms around Dhandi, his slumping form engulfing hers like a very menacing shadow.
“Soul, ready to depart,” he rasped into Dhandi’s ear, “the vessel chosen, let blood lead it there.”
Dhandi could feel her feet summersault above her as she and the sorcerer leaned back, collapsing into the bath, a rush of sensations invading her body. The sorcerer gripped his bony hand against her chest, making her struggle to the surface more difficult. The mixture stung her closed eyes and seemed to burn her nose. The orgasmic groans of Mozenrath echoed in her head. His grip on her lessened.
Yet she couldn’t breathe. Of course, she was holding her breath, but something was pressing against her lungs like lead. She was so panicked; she couldn’t even hear that eel shriek and the hissing smoke above her.
“Why is this happening to me?” Dhandi thought, very frightened, “Why isn’t anyone saving me?”
Suddenly, something grabbed her and pulled the child straight up, a speed rivaling that of a firework.
“Whoa there!” a voice bellowed, “Mus’ bay a fave pounda!”
The liquid splashed and Dhandi was limply dangling on a fishing line.
“Got me a marlin!” The angler’s exaggerated accent prompted Dhandi to look and a smile of great relief appeared on the child’s face.
“Eden!” Indeed, it was her djinn, dressed in a pink plaid cotton shirt and a massive pair of green wader, with a fishing pole in her hand and a comforting smile on her face. However, gazing awhile at the dripping wet girl, Eden’s smile turned into a worried frown.
“Don’t scare me like that, baby!” Eden grabbed Dhandi by the shoulders. “If that stupid worm hadn’t-“Suddenly, her mistress clung against her waist and broke down crying.
“I was scared too! I thought I was gonna die!” Eden poofed a box of tissues and handed to Dhandi. The girl grabbed a handful and wiped her face, new tears replacing the ones wiped away.
“I was scared that you weren’t gonna-“
Eden shook her head. “Ah, come on kiddo. You know I’ll always be there for you. I know. You wished it.”
Dhandi’s crying subsided and a small smile appeared on her face once more. She looked back at Eden’s bottle in the corner, the sorcerer’s familiar all tangled up in its long body and looking very disoriented and pieces of mamluk writhing about on the floor.
“He’d put up quite a fight,” Eden commented, looking into the bath and a look of disgust appeared. “Ugh, he’s so not goin’ anywhere for a while.”
“Who was that guy?” Dhandi asked, picking up the bottle. Xerxes squirmed towards the child’s leg, trying to grab a bite. However, he failed as she walked out of range and bit into the tile instead.
“Do you know?”
Eden picked her charge up.
“No one you should be worried about now. Now let’s get out of here. The place has a vibe that screams ‘Manson family’.”
Dhandi smiled as Eden morphed into Mary Poppins, opened her umbrella, and vanished. Xerxes gurgled and, uncoiling himself, swam over to the bath. The eerie outline of a decaying corpse reached the eel’s mismatched eyes. The familiar of the late sorcerer began to chuckle low and mischievously.
“Master back soon,” he cackled. “Xerxes be sure.” With a motion of his head, the remaining pieces of mamluk exited the bathroom. Swooping down on the gauntlet, the eel hovered towards the pillar, the crimson candle still alight. With a flick of its tail, the candle went flying. As Xerxes at last left, a burst of fire exploded from behind.
The fire slowly smoldered, whatever left behind surely burned in that makeshift kiln.
Chapter 4: A Dream is a Wish Your Heart Makes
Dhandi sputtered as stream of soapy warm water splashed down on her head. She wiped away the drenched bangs from her eyes, looking straight up at the smiling green showerhead with a black ponytail.
“At least you don’t smell like a funeral home anymore,” Eden the green bathtub gurgled, bubbles rising around her master. Dhandi giggled as she leaned against the lip of the tub who blushed. “Wasn’t me.”
The girl sighed, letting her arm dangle over the side. “I’m sorry I scared you today.”
“Well, I had to be,” Eden replied, concerned. “And it’s not just because of the wish. You’re my baby and I don’t know what I would do if I lost you.”
“You would be able to be with Genie.”
The green-skinned Genie of the Bottle frowned slightly. “But not at that price.” Eden paused for a moment.
“Boy, that got real heavy real fast,” she chuckled softly. Dhandi nodded, smiling slightly. “Let’s go check on your dress.”
The tub began to move towards a clothesline strung in the corner of the hovel. Suddenly the tub sprouted arms that stretched towards the lone articles of clothing, the orange dress and the brown coat. Grabbing them, the rubbery arms drew the clothes towards the showerhead. No sooner did the djinn took a whiff, the showerhead began coughing and gagging violently.
“It still smells gross, doesn’t it,” Dhandi said. “It’s probably gonna take ages to get the smell out.”
“Don’t worry,” the djinn coughed, tossing the clothes back on the line. “I loan you own of mine. Now, are you ready to get out?”
“Yep,” the girl nodded. With a pop, Eden morphed back into her “normal” form, a dripping-wet Dhandi standing there with a pink terrycloth towel around her waist and another one balancing haphazardly on her head, and the djinn suddenly morphed into a giant green hairdryer.
“Hold on to something.” Suddenly a rush of heated air blew in Dhandi’s direction, the towel on her head flying off and her lips flickering rapidly against the jet of air. A good minute later, the hum of the dryer died and not a single drop of water that was on the child’s body escaped evaporation, though her hair was standing on end, very stiffly. Eden, morphing back once again, eyed her master’s new hairdo. Dhandi looked up, a very sheepish look on her face.
“Hmm,” the djinn poked the rigid tresses, “we may have to operate.” A puff of smoke appearing inside the hovel, the sounds of drilling and jackhammers pounding resonated in the smoke. When the smoke dissipated, Dhandi’s hair no longer stood on end.
“Thanks,” Dhandi said.
“Welcomed,” Eden grinned and suddenly pulled off the girl’s towel, an outfit of pink and green similar to the djinn’s own appeared on the child. “Wow, it works for you.”
Dhandi smiled, crawling onto one of the large cushions and sat Indian-style. She let out a huge yawn.
“Tired? I bet after the day you had, you would be.”
Dhandi nodded, laying down and tucking her legs in.
“Do you remember what happened?” Eden, soon after asking this, bit her lower lip, rather anxiously. “I understand if you don’t want to, but maybe if you were still...”
“I remember,” Dhandi whispered, groggily, “he made me (yawn) drink this weird stuff...he cut his hand, ugh...it was all salty and it made me feel sick...(yawn) he said something about O-s-eye-ris and someone else...”
The girl snored lightly, Eden watching her stir in slumber.
“Mozenrath was probably up to something,” she thought. “But he’s dead. He can’t really do anything. However...”
The green djinn reached over her master and pulled a blanket over her body. “I’m just gonna do some detective work for a while, sweetheart, but I’m gonna need some help.”
With that, Eden vanished in a puff of green smoke.
I'm waiting for you.
I kept my fire inside my ribs.
And I put my hand on my cheek
And counted by seconds your absence and you never came.
A familiar rhyme and rhythm tickled in Dhandi’s ears as the whirlwind of scarves of reds, pinks, oranges, and violets swirled together as she watched in awe as the luscious feminine figures twirled and shook, as rapidly as the music bid them. The onlookers clapped as the dancers executed tight and controlled moves with grace that would make the most poised gazelle seem like a clumsy cow. A roaring fire lit up the night, the stars twinkling brightly in the dark violet sky.
She loved this dream, pure and simple. Something about this one comforted her. Perhaps it was the colors or even the energy and pace of the dance that stirred thoughts almost forbidden inside her. Or perhaps it was the woman in orange garb that stared back at Dhandi, smiling. The woman with raven hair done in braids, three that Dhandi had counted, and skin the color of the sand approached her, hand reached out.
I wish - I wish I never fell in love.
I need to know if you are upset
Or if somebody else occupies your heart
From my hopelessness, you make me say.
The music began once more as the woman drew back her hand and slowly merged back into formation, circling an invisible point in the middle of the large intricately embroidered carpet. The women raised their hands slowly, their fingers lightly touching the ones across from their owners, all of them swaying to the soft beat of a drum. They twirled in the circle, their skirts swirling against their legs.
Dhandi sighed as the women kneeled, backs towards the audience. How she longed to touched that woman’s hand, even for a second, it tempting her constantly. The wind seemed to blow much cooler now, the fire crackling as their flames whip and writhe about.
The absence will continue forever
And I ask myself what did I gain
From my mistake.
Only you are my problem.
The tempo increased, the women springing up and trilling. Men joined in, dressed in darker, richer shades of the familiar hues. They contorted as they leapt, the music guiding their every erratic movement. The women twirled around their bodies suggestively, their partners suddenly lifting them up into the air. The airy fabric of their skirts fluttered.
A sole figure in dark blue danced around the woman in orange, placing his hand on her chest. He held her close, panicking his partner as she thrashed against him like a frightened bird against a cage. He pressed his sallow lips against hers, tears running down her tanned cheek. Muffled shrieks exit the woman’s lips to the audience that doesn’t bother to look up.
“Stop it,” Dhandi whispered, horrified at this man violating her. “Leave her alone.”
Her plead went unfulfilled, as he kept her bound to his body, her struggling subsiding. All this time, Dhandi sat there helpless, staring at this violation.
Then he stared back.
Something sank inside Dhandi when she saw that piercing black eye. Black as kohl, it shown no warmth behind those irises. The sickly pale face turned from the limp body of his partner, towards the child, a malevolent smirk appearing. Dropping the dead weight of the woman in orange, he began to walk towards Dhandi.
I wish - I wish I never fell in love.
I anguish on the hot part of the fire.
My brain is absent from concentration
With each breath I count your steps
With each little letter I count your conversations with me
I am in this mood morning and night.
And they saw me and they said I have become insane.
Dhandi lost count of his paces towards her, only it seemed he vanished and reappeared squarely in front of her in mere seconds. Her body froze, scared to make a move but her mind screaming “just don’t sit there! RUN!” into her ear in deafening tones. The pale young man leaned down to her, smiling, cruel intentions hidden behind that grin. He placed his hand upon her left cheek, his fingers softly drumming against her temple.
Dhandi could feel something raking against her right cheek. Praying it was just his hand, she looked at the corner of her eye. To her horror, it was a skeleton’s hand, worse of all it was his. She let out scream, the man undeterred however. He merely chuckled softly as he placed a kiss upon her cheek.
I wish - I wish I never fell in love.
You promised me by years and days
And you come to me with excuses and garbage words
Those words!!
(Say something different only nicer)
You come and shake my hand and leave quickly
Or you don't come and just say "I forgot."
Suddenly, the child swiftly kicked the man’s gut, a force that threw him back a foot or so. That was enough for Dhandi to scramble onto her feet and race up the sand dunes that cradled the scene. The grains of sand splashed against her legs, her feet sinking as she scrambled over the dune’s peak. She couldn’t stop, not if she wanted that man to catch up.
Suddenly, she tripped upon the sand, falling headfirst into a summersault rolling down the dune. Her head spun as she skidded to a complete stop at the bottom, lying on her back. Her senses dizzied as she slowly rose to her feet, encrusted with sand. Still trying to regain her balance, she turned to look up the dune.
No sign of the pale man atop the sand.
“Who was that guy?” Dhandi wondered, taking wobbly steps. It suddenly dawned on her. “His hand! It’s the same on that old guy!”
A worried look appeared upon her face. She looked around. Still no one but herself in the vast desert land.
“But he drowned,” the girl paced, carrying on a conversation with an invisible audience. “He’s not going to hurt me anymore. So why is he here and why does he look like this young man?”
The rustling of feet moving through sand prompted her to turn and look. No one still and not a sign of anyone else ever being there, save for her own set of footprints.
“But if it is him, why does he kinda look like...ahhh!” Her conversation was cut short as she found herself knee-deep in sand. No, sand didn’t feel so smooth and oily. Yes, oil was the better term and it was rising as she sunk further down.
“Help me!” Dhandi panicked, clawing the more benign sands for a better grip, but all in vain. She kept sinking.
“It’s just a dream, it’s just a dream. It’s not real.” Sand was up to her waist.
She closed her eyes. Eden said closing your eyes and counting to ten always worked, especially in bad dreams. Dhandi hoped she was right.
“1...2...3...” she counted, still very frightened.
“4...5...6...” The sand was up to her chest.
“7...8...9...” Up to her neck now.
“10!” she shrieked as her head was submerged, her arms flailing above.
Was she dead? Dhandi wondered. It was black as pitch and she couldn’t breath. So why was she still here?
She panicked suddenly. Something grabbed her wrists and she began to rise.
Chapter 5: Imaginary Friends
“You’re pretty stupid to be sinking in the sand,” a voice said, very curtly.
Dhandi opened her eyes, blinking. She was reclining against the slope of a dune, a curly-haired boy glaring at her.
“Even more so to be wandering around at night,” he added.
Dhandi wiped the crust of sand from her eyes. “Did you save me?”
The boy sighed sharply. “Did I leave you to die in that quicksand?” Dhandi stared at the boy, embarrassed. Of course, he was right, but then again he didn’t have a creepy man after him.
“Thank you,” she said, standing up and brushing the sand off her pink and green assemble. She turned to crawl back up the dune.
“Oh,” she quickly turned back to the boy, “how did you find me?”
“Well, your screaming was loud enough to wake the dead,” he answered, crossing his arms, “among other things. That and those footprints were a dead give-away.”
Sliding back down, Dhandi inspected him and his posture, circling where he stood. “You remind me of someone.”
The boy looked intently at her from a corner of his dark eye, apprehensively. “Who?”
“Something about you,” Dhandi scanned him from top to bottom and vice versa, “reminds me of...Aladdin.”
The boy tried his best not to wrinkle his nose. “Who is he?”
“Oh, he’s one of the nicest people I’ve ever met,” she answered, a tone of admiration in her voice. “He used to be a street rat like me, but now he’s like one of the most important people in Agrabah, one of its protectors.”
“Oh,” the boy replied blandly, “a hero then.”
Dhandi nodded enthusiastically. “He married the Princess (she’s very nice) a few weeks ago and Eden and I were invited, but...then I got sick with a sore throat. Eden stayed with me the whole time-“
“Eden?”
“Oh, she’s my genie.”
The boy’s face lights up with interest. “Wow, where did you find her?”
Dhandi looked around. Grains of sand were scattered by the cool wind. She shivered as it blew through her hair.
“What is it?” the boy asked.
“N-Nothing,” she replied. “It’s just that guy that was chasing me...I’m just kinda wondering why he hasn’t caught up by now.”
“Don’t worry, kid,” a cool voice made Dhandi jump, “I’m here.”
Dhandi turned, facing the pale man in black and blue standing behind. His arms were open, indicating friendliness though his predatory smile suggested the contrary. Her face bore the look of nerve, but anyone could plainly see that by the shivering of her legs, she was terrified.
“I can only assume that’s him,” the boy whispered to her as she back-stepped his way. She nodded, affirming.
“Oh, did you discover boys while I was gone?” he asked, mockingly as he took a step forward. “That is SO adorable.”
Dhandi frowned, terror replaced with anger. The boy glanced at her, reassuringly.
“I don’t like what you were doing,” she yelled, confidence mingled in her words. The man smirked. “Who are you and why are you picking on me?”
“Now that would be telling, precious,” he drawled, wagging his bony finger. His hand of bleached bone began to glow a dark blue, ablaze like a malignant fire.
“You like dancing, don’t you? Dance for me.”
Terror inherent in her eyes as a blast of that blue fire exploded in the sand inches in front of her, Dhandi stumbled backwards and clung against the boy’s arm. Nearly knocked down, he looked at the girl, eyebrow cocked curiously.
“It’s just a dream,” she whispered, eyes still on the pale man’s skeletal hand. “It isn’t real.”
“A dream is a wish your heart makes,” the man said, aiming to shoot again. “And I AM very real. Now DANCE!”
The Citadel was very quiet that night, save for a few mamluks, confused and wandering aimlessly. Of course, their purpose had been to serve the master of the keep. Lord Mozenrath had not been about since that afternoon, when the bathroom had unexpectingly become an oven, so the undead servants just wandered, some bumping into walls and falling into pieces. They didn’t even notice the two figures lurking about the roof.
Suddenly, the theme from “Mission: Impossible”, a tune unheard of until five centuries later, blares as Genie, clad in a tight black shirt and leather pants, shimmied down a rope and landed in the center of the Great Hall. He scanned the room of any guards, meeting to welcome him. Finding none, he pulled out a black device, known as a walkie-talkie five centuries later, and a buzz emerged from it.
“This Blue Boy One to Lean Green One,” he uttered into the buzzing walkie-talkie, “Dismounted in Brat Boy Central Hall. Requesting for contact, over.”
“Contact granted, Blue Boy,” Eden’s voice buzzed out of the device. “Coming in for contact. Over.”
Green smoke slinked out of the earpiece of the walkie-talkie and soon the familiar Djinn of the Bottle was standing next to Genie. Dressed in a tight leather jumpsuit a la “The Matrix”, Eden wrapped her arms around Genie’s neck and planted a kiss on his lips.
“How’s that for contact?”
“Whoa,” Genie said, imitating a surfer as Eden broke away from the embrace.
“Come on,” Genie’s beloved urged, as the djinns quickly slinked against the wall, “we gotta find out what Mozen-brat was up to.”
“If he laid even a finger on her,” Genie growled, “I’m gonna give him the Bob Barker treatment when I find him.”
“Hey,” Eden interjected, “we’re not supposed say that or the FCC is gonna be all over us.”
“Why not?” Genie then pulled out a script, titled “All of Me” written by Paul “P.S.” Sullivan, and started flipping through. “This story has already had its rating changed and some of this stuff is kinda disturbing. Honestly, you can’t get away with that on a kid’s show-”
“Someone’s coming,” the green-skinned djinn hushed Genie. Footsteps were dragging down the hall. A mamluk soon appeared, arm limply dangling from its socket. It bumped abruptly into the grimy black wall, a blue urn with green swirls wobbling along with the force. It kept ramming into the wall five times or so before something pushed it aside and allowed it to go on its way down the hall.
“Where were they when they were handing out brains?” the urn wondered.
“Probably doing Mozy’s laundry,” the swirls answered. The urn and swirls separated and morphed back into a pair of genies. Eden looked at Genie, pointing to his beardless chin and realizing that it was on hers.
“You know,” Genie tried to hold back snickering, but failed, “there’s something sexy about a woman with facial hair.” Rolling her eyes, Eden twitched her nose and a jar of warm wax and a strip of cloth appeared. She smeared the wax on her chin, plastered the strip on, and with great speed, ripped the beard off and plastered it back on Genie.
“Looks better on you,” she said, pinching her blue beau’s cheek, prompting a coy chuckle from him.
“Okay,” Eden pulled out a roll of blue paper and spread it out, revealing it as a schematic of the Citadel, signed by a Paul Felix, “you take the library and I’ll take the bathroom. I’ll buzz you if I find anything interesting and you’ll look through the books, see if there’s something useful that might help us.”
“Will do, Amazon-That-Is-My-Woman!” Genie saluted and, transforming into a rocket, shot through the halls, even leaving behind a trail of smoke. Smiling, Eden disappeared in a puff of green smoke, reappearing in the bathroom.
The state of the bathroom seemed like an episode of one of those...telly-vison shows about home renovation that Eden often watched inside of her bottle. The black tiles that adorned the walls and the floor were charred so badly their sheen was reduced to that of charcoal. When Eden set a foot down, ash went flying and revealed a distorted, twisted form of metal laid there, unrecognizable from its past appearance.
“Apparently, boy-wizard needs to fire his maid,” the djinn said, placing a hand against the wall only to have it covered in black ash, “if he even bothered to have one in the first place. Well, time to get to work.”
The djinn morphed into a crime scene investigator, complete with black pantsuit and pumps and armed with a magnifying glass, tweezers, and a pair of latex gloves. As Eden began picking through the piles of ash with her tweezers, one could hear the sound of aged British rock stars playing a riff of one of their top hits of 1978 in the background.
“Go ahead and run, kids!” the pale man shouted to Dhandi and her companion, mischievously as blue fire blasted from his hand, “it just makes it harder to aim, but, man, it’s twice as fun!”
The man’s fun had Dhandi and the boy ducking behind a sand dune. She peered over, ducking back down as a ball of fire barely grazed the top of her head.
“So,” the boy turned Dhandi as she batted the singed strands of her hair, “any brilliant plans to get out of this one?”
“I don’t know,” she replied. “I don’t usually have weird guys chasing after me with...fireballs of doom in my dreams.”
“Well, what do you do when you have bad dreams?”
“Well, I did the ‘counting to ten’, but it didn’t work. And I want to wake up, but I...”
“But what?” The boy glared at her, waiting for her answer.
“I-I just don’t feel like waking up right now.”
The boy sighed, exasperated. He rubbed his right temple with his hand, force behind his massages. Dhandi followed suit, though it was more of a light tapping.
Suddenly, her eyes widen and glistened, full of hope. “We could go somewhere else!”
The boy looked at Dhandi, as if her face was covered with scarab beetles. “Well, obviously! In fact, that’s what we’ve been doing for the past couple of minutes!”
“No, to another dream or something!” Dhandi turned to the boy, hopeful. “All we have to do is find an exit and close it behind us, so he doesn’t follow us.”
“But where would there be a door? That guy is not gonna give us time to look.”
“Th-then we’ll form a distraction. We’ll split up and keep him occupied while we search.” Just then, the sand dune exploded, sand and kids flying from the force of the blast. Landing a few feet away, Dhandi and the boy scrambled to their feet, brushing off their bodies. The pale man climbing through the hole he made in the sand dune.
“Hi kids.” His hand flamed. The children darted off in two different directions, Dhandi in the left, the boy in the right. The man rolled his eyes and promptly started shooting fireballs at Dhandi once more. She dove behind a palm tree. Her eyes followed the boy who had ducked behind a boulder. He peered from behind and darted back to the dune.
Why is he heading back? Dhandi wondered, leaping away as the palm splintered from fireball. A thought occurred to her. The hole! A way out!
Dhandi scrambled back on to her feet, the man approaching closer menacingly. However, she tripped upon the remains of the palm, falling flat on her face. The sound of feet, crunching upon sand, echoed in her ears as well as soft, malicious chuckling.
“This will only hurt for a moment, rabbit,” the man said, insincerely. His hand rose to aim, a smile of menace appeared as his quarry slowly pushed herself up. Suddenly, Dhandi heard the sound of a fire blast, but...she was still there. Prompted by the sound of a body plopping down upon the sand, she looked up and found the man lying on his back, groaning as the ghostly aura of a spell rose like steam from a cup of coffee.
Her focus shifted to the boy, standing by the dune, hand raised and emitting the same aura that struck the pale man.
“H-how did you-“ Dhandi sputtered, baffled, “uh, he-“
“He probably won’t be out too long,” the boy interrupted, hand reached out. “Come on!”
No sooner he said it, Dhandi ran to his side. The sounds of the man stirring quickened her pace. The pair stood at the hole, the boy reached towards it. The view of the dune behind it rippled like water.
“Think of a place where we can be safe,” he instructed, “where he can’t follow.”
“I know one,” Dhandi replied. The boy smiled slightly as he stuck his foot out.
“Hold on.”
It felt like being squeezed through a straw as Dhandi and the boy took the plunge through the portal. Dhandi felt her body stretch and squashed as she clung to the boy.
They exited the portal with a pop, flying out of a barrel and into a pile of thick nets, resting on a pier, empty of people but abundant with ships and the day’s catch.
“Are you okay?” Dhandi asked her companion sitting upside down.
“Nice,” the boy groaned, sliding up the nets and pulling her up the right way. “We’re at a pier, aren’t we?”
Dhandi nodded, blood still rushing back down from her head. “I used to live near one in Para-Moor. Well, when I was awake.”
“Obviously.” The boy inspected a squirming fish with a reddish sore on its belly.
Suddenly, big burly hands grab the fish from his hand. The boy frowned, only to dodge another man dragging a net of very fragrant tuna. Soon scores of men invade the pier, babbling on about their catch and the ones that got away. The boy found his way back to Dhandi, smelling very much of tuna to his dismay. Dhandi took a whiff and covered her nose.
“What are you sniffing at?” the boy snapped.
“I’m sorry,” Dhandi giggled, “but you kinda smell like my dad.” The boy sniffed his hands and recoiled in disgust.
“Which one is he? We could probably smell him out.”
“He’s over there,” Dhandi pointed out towards a man, broad in shoulders and gut sticking out. He was hauling a massive net, the squirming fish splashing ooze upon his graying brown beard. He chuckled heartily as he sees the lone girl, waving at him. He waved back, releasing the net some ways enough for a few bold fish to leap out and onto the wooden planks of the pier.
Dhandi laughed heartily, matching that of her father, as he scrambled to collect the escaped fish. The boy stared at the girl and at her father. Shrugging, he turned and began to walk away.
“Hey!” Dhandi grabbed on to his shoulder. “Why are you walking off?”
“You haven’t forgotten that this crazy guy’s still after you, have you?” the boy asked forcefully, jerking her hand off his shoulder.
Dhandi looked at him, stunned. “N-no, I haven’t forgotten. In fact, I’m-I am scared that he would...”
“That he would hurt your dad.”
Dhandi nodded. A pause occurred between the two.
“You have these powers, don’t you?” she asked, breaking the silence.
“Yeah,” the boy answered, crossing his arms smugly. “What about it?”
“I want to learn some stuff, to protect my dad and me from that weirdo.”
The boy scratched his chin, contemplating. “It would be hard work. Keep in mind; nothing’s worth anything unless you work for it.”
“OH, THANK YOU!” Dhandi hugged the boy with great adoration and relish. However, the feeling wasn’t mutual with the boy who pushed her off.
“You mind not doing that?” he hissed. “It’s not like I’m gonna marry you or something.”
Dhandi smiled sheepishly. “I never got your name. Please tell me.”
The boy sighed. “It’s Amir.”
“Amir,” she repeated. “Very regal.”
Amir smirked. “More so than you know.”
Chapter 6: Lessons and Leaps
Eden coughed as the ash flew up into her face. She had been digging through the charred remains within Mozenrath’s bathroom for over a half hour, finding no success so far.
“Bzzzzz, Blue Boy to Lean Green,” the walkie-talkie buzzed, “Come in.”
Eden picked it up. “Lean Green to Blue Boy, did you find anything yet?”
“There are references to Osirus all over, but…did Dhandi say anything else?”
Eden thought for a moment. “She said something about drinking something salty a-and she smelled like anointing oils and wines. Heck, she and Mozy were swimming in a whole freaking tub of that stuff!”
A brief pause occurred until the walkie-talkie buzzed once again. “Lean Green, I found something!”
Eden’s eyes widen. “Really? What is it? Tell me!”
“It says ‘Spiritual Transference’,” Genie read over his walkie-talkie. “Hmm, funny. It seems that he’s repeating himself. Not a good sign.”
“What?”
“He tried the same thing with Al, though it was a bit more in the vein of Franken-rath. Mozenrath tried to do a body switch because he was dying, but he ended up sharing with Al- Babe, are you all right?”
Eden stood there, jaw dropped and on the verge of tears. “I-I failed her.”
“What?” Genie poured out of Eden’s walkie-talkie, concerned. Eden turned toward the Genie of the Lamp, eyes furious and tinted with sorrow.
“My-my baby’s dead and that freak stole her from me!” Her fist crushed the walkie-talkie.
“Geniessssss,” Xerxes hissed as he hovered by the door, spotting the pair. Eden shot a fiery red glare at the hovering eel and roared, transforming into a massive green dragon, spewing fire.
“MOOOOOOOOZEEEEENRAAAAAAAAAAAATH!” Xerxes stared at the furious green beast, eyes bulging and stomach gurgling. The Eden-dragon reared her head, hurling a fireball at the petrified eel.
“Hold up for a moment,” Genie suddenly reached over and pulled Xerxes away by the throat from the fireball’s path. Xerxes babbled incoherently, still terrified of the dragon that was thrashing about in the bathroom.
“Smokey,” Genie frowned at the squirming eel in his hand, “you can’t argue with a woman, for you are flammable and taste good with ketchup.” He looked up at Eden, still distressed and breathing fire.
“She’s gonna be like that for a while. Why don’t we go somewhere…more private?”
With a puff of blue smoke, Genie and the eel reappeared in a dark room. When the light flashed on, Xerxes was tied to a chair with a beam of light from a lamp glaring at him.
“Now that we’re alone,” Genie said, dressed up like a detective ala Sam Spade and flipping a quarter, “spill it, tube-sock.”
Xerxes gurgled, bewildered.
“Stop beatin’ around da bush,” Genie smacked the eel upside the head. “We knows your boss was with dis kid.” Genie flipped a black and white picture of Dhandi and Eden playing baseball out. “What was he doin’ with da kid?!”
“Boy,” Xerxes gasped, eyeing the picture. “Master with boy.”
Genie smacked Xerxes once more. “WE’RE NOT TALKING ABOUT A BOY HERE! WE’RE TALKING ABOUT THIS KID, DHANDI!”
“Master did spell with b-D-Dhandi,” the eel coughed. “Dhandi has spirit of Master.”
“YES, WE KNOW THAT! WHERE IS HER SPIRIT? IN MASTER’S BODY?!”
“Dhandi spirit…still in Dhandi.”
“Okay,” Dhandi said, sitting beside Amir upon a sand dune in the daylight, “I’m ready.” Amir paced behind her, in a manner that she had seen Father Habya binGud done in lectures.
“The first thing we’ll be doing,” Amir said, “is a mage light.”
“What’s a mage light?” Dhandi asked, looking up.
“It’s like a torch, only it’s lit by a person’s spirit. It’s also an indicator of the mage’s aura. Every witch’s or wizard’s aura has a different color and it’s evident by the color of their light.”
“Wow. So how do I…light up?”
“Everyone has the potential for magic, but rarely get in touch with it either because they don’t want to or they don’t know how,” Amir smiled. “You can do it by focusing on the deepest part of your being, the very atoms of your soul.”
Dhandi bit her lip. “I’ll try.”
“No. Do or do not. There is no try.” That in mind, Dhandi turned her focus upon her hands. She closed her eyes and thought very deeply.
It was dark.
Then something glowed. It was an iridescent blue spark, swimming in the darkness. Sparks of cool reds and yellows joined it. They swirled together and multiplied, different sparks of purples, blues, green and oranges spinning. Her head grew light as the colors swirled and joined, kaleidoscope patterns forming. They rapidly changed until…
It was light. Pure white light.
“Open your eyes, but slowly,” Amir’s voice echoed in her head.
Dhandi’s eyes flickered opened, a bright orange haze glowing. When her eyes opened all the way, euphoria washed over her as she stared at the small hovering ball of orange fire.
“Amir! I did it!”
The boy smiled. “You certainly did and it’s beautiful.”
Dhandi removed her hands from beneath the mage light. The light hovered up towards her face, inquisitively. The girl giggled as it lit up her face with its glow. Amir placed his hand upon her shoulder.
“You have to wake up now.”
“Wha-“
Groaning, Dhandi opened her eyes. She stretched out as she yawned. She slid off the pillows, her eyes scanning the hovel for that familiar smiling face.
“Eden?” There was no reply.
Dhandi saw the bottleneck, poking out from a pile of pillows. Eden would sometimes hide her bottle before she went to bed, just in case. The girl crawled over towards the bottle and removed its stopper.
“Eden?” she whispered into the bottle. No reply still. Making a face, Dhandi shook the bottle gently. Still no sign of the green-skinned djinn.
“Dhandi!” The girl jumped at the sound of Babkak calling her. Climbing up the stairs, Babkak appeared in the room, breathless. “Dhan…(huff)…di, (huff)…where (huff) were you…yesterday (huff) afternoon? (huff) Nice outfit, (huff) like your lady’s.”
Dhandi looked at herself and smirked. Last night, Eden loaned her an outfit, because her usual dress still reeked of overpowering oils.
“Well, where were you?” the squat boy repeated.
“I…was doing something else,” Dhandi answered.
“Doing something else? But you missed our algebra lesson and you know he’s gonna give you a test over all that stuff-“
“Well, maybe I wanted to do it, but couldn’t.”
“Well, what were you doing then? Father binGud has to know-“
“Like he had to know that I was fighting Asfour all by myself, that my friend chickened out on me!”
Babkak stared at Dhandi, dumbstruck. He had never heard her talk so harshly towards him. As did Dhandi, at a loss for words.
“Dhandi,” Babkak asked softly, “are you okay?”
“I…I’m not sure,” Dhandi answered, still baffled. “I just need some time to myself, I guess.” The girl began walking towards the stairwell, walking right past Babkak.
“Dhandi-” Babkak grabbed her shoulder, but Dhandi turned and jerked his hand off angrily.
“I need some time to myself!” Furious, Dhandi ran down the stairwell and into the streets, barely avoiding a cart of watermelons coming down the road. Dust kicked up as she ran, the sands of the street slowly becoming littered with shells with every step. She stopped in her tracks a few minutes later. The sounds of sea birds and waves beating against the shore were familiar to her.
She was at the pier.
Of course, it being still very early, there weren’t many people. It didn’t really matter. She wanted some time alone. Maybe go comb the beach. That was how she found Eden, she recalled. Dhandi sat down at the edge of the pier, legs dangling over the low tide.
She squinted, the glare of the sun upon the water blinding her. Dhandi sighed.
First, Eden, and now, Babkak, she thought. Babkak, I was too mean to him. What’s wrong with me?
She stared at her hands. They seem to glow with the morning light.
That glow. Something familiar about it, though…not entirely real. Dhandi chuckled to herself. As if she could do magic like Eden.
Then she blinked. The moment her eyes opened again, they dilated as a fiery ball of orange light hovered in front of her.
“No…way.”
“Yeah…way,” a voice in the back of her head chortled. Dhandi quickly turned her head around. No one behind her.
“Uh, over here.” Dhandi jerked her head around, the voice chuckling. “All right, I’ll stop messing with you, Dhandi.”
“A-Amir?” the girl gasped, surprised. “But-how could you…you’re…not real.”
“Oh? Then how do you explain that mage light in front of you?” Dhandi opened her mouth to speak, but nothing comes out. She glanced at the mage light that glowed rather dimly now.
“How did I do it? I could only do it…in my dreams.” It dawned on her. Not really certain what “it” was, Dhandi asked Amir: “You and that man…then you guys are both real?”
“Oh dear Allah, we have a genius on our hands here,” Amir said, sarcastically. “What was your first clue, prodigy kid?”
“I just wanted to make sure,” Dhandi frowned. “You don’t have to be all jerky about it. Anyway, that guy’s running around my head. I don’t know what he’s doing or gonna do.”
“That’s why I’m teaching you. You’re important to me.” Dhandi smiled, cheeks turning bright pink. The mage light mirrored it.
However, a thought occurred to her.
“That old man…he did something to me. That-that spell, it’s probably why you two are here!”
“Perhaps,” Amir said. “If you want to make sure, you could go back to that place-”
“I’m gonna talk to Eden about that first,” Dhandi said, standing up. She didn’t really want to head back to that place. “She might know something like that. She’s pretty smart.”
“Can I meet Eden?” Amir asked.
“Maybe,” Dhandi stretched her arms. She felt rather sore and tired. “Though it might be kinda hard, considering you only exist in my head.”
“I’ll think of something. In the meantime, want to learn something else?”
Eden shrank back down to her curvaceous form. The bathroom was now caked with even more ash from her rampage. Still, she felt numb.
“My baby,” she simpered, “she’s gone and I let her-” In a puff of smoke, Genie appeared right next to her. He has a look of enlightenment and concern upon his face.
“Okay, after an hour of persuasion and many slaps to the head, the worm talked,” he held up the rather discombobulated Xerxes, “and we got some good news and bad news.”
Eden looked up, a spark of hope in her mind. “Yes?”
“Good news, Dhandi’s soul is still in her body,” Genie announced, still gripping Xerxes in one hand, “The tube sock has informed me that the spell was only half-done.”
“So what’s the bad news?” Eden asked, her spirits lifted. Dhandi she knew was still alive, but something inside her head suggested it wasn’t that simple.
“My stock is down 10 percent,” Genie said, flipping through a newspaper, “and Mozenrath’s spirit now inhabits Dhandi’s body as well.”
Chapter 7: Apprentice and Master
“You mind repeating that?” Eden said, her eyelid twitching. Genie and Xerxes looked at the green-skinned djinn, uneasily. Genie knew first hand of how great his beloved’s fury when she gets angry, namely when he took her to Pompeii that morning to find the House of Faun was not only in ruins but had absolutely no service.
“You mind telling her the news, buddy?” Genie turned to Xerxes. The serpentine familiar stared at Eden, gulping.
“Well?” The genie shot a fiery glare at him.
“Uh, Master in Dhandi’s body,” the eel said quickly. He flinched, expecting the worst.
“Well, when we find him,” Eden growled, but her tone suddenly became lighter, “I got a little message for him.”
“Uh?” Xerxes gazed quizzically. Genie followed suit.
“I’m gonna tell him that he can suck me AND my beau dry, but when he messes with my little girl, I get eleventh-century on his pasty little butt.” Eden formed a fist and hit it against her palm.
Xerxes squirmed anxiously in the blue Genie’s fist. He glared the djinn and bared his teeth, ready to bite into the hand of his captor.
“Oh no, you don’t!” Genie said, noticing the eel’s plan and, pointing his finger at its mouth, a muzzle appeared, tightly wrapped around the familiar’s jaws. Xerxes protested, muffled.
“But now, the million dinari question is,” Eden said thoughtfully, placing her finger on her temple, “what does evil boy wizard want with Dhandi?”
Genie scratched his bearded chin. He glanced at Eden when suddenly his eyes widen, terrified.
“We need to find her.”
“So, what do you want to teach me?” Dhandi asked Amir, as she walked down the street market, avoiding the bustling crowds of merchants and shoppers. The mage light followed closely like a bee to a flower. It occasionally bumped into Dhandi’s head, inciting a yelp of pain from the girl.
Of course, it’s made of fire, she thought to herself, rubbing her sore spot.
“Well, you created a mage light,” Amir replied. “I guess we can go on to another step. Say, controlling where it goes.”
“How?”
“Well, first pick a place you want it to go. How about that crate?” Dhandi looked straight in front of her. Surely enough, there was a crate of bathinjan (eggplant to non-Arabians) sitting five or six feet in front of her. She looked around. The merchants were immersed with their deals. Hopefully too busy to notice.
“Okay, I see it,” Dhandi whispered to Amir. “Now what?”
“Hold on,” Amir chuckled, “I’m getting to it. Now, you just imagine it going over there, how fast or slow you want it.”
Dhandi stared at the crate, thoughtfully. She imagined the ball of flame hovering towards the crate, like a fly toward a manure cart. Not particularly fast, but not actually snail-speed. She gazed up and her mage light was fluttering lazily towards the crate. She smiled gleefully.
“Come on,” she urged it on softly, “just a little further.” She was so engrossed in watching it; she couldn’t hear the heavy and rapid clopping of horse hooves and the spinning of the watermelon cart’s wheels that were coming up from behind her.
“MOVE IT, KID!” the driver hollered, the massive horse screaming like a demonic baby. Dhandi turned and let out a shriek.
No one could explain what happened next, but the horse reared its forelegs, backing away from the frightened child. Dhandi looked up and then behind her. The crate of eggplant was alight with fire and it was spreading, flames already halfway up tent. Several merchants ran from their stalls, carting what merchandise they could save from the blaze. All the while, Dhandi stood there, bewilderment upon her face.
“This would be the part where YOU run,” Amir whispered. Without missing a beat, Dhandi turned her heel and ran, pushing her way through an alarmed crowd armed with buckets of sand and water.
Babkak sighed, his fingers busy with a thread on his shirt. He recalled the girl he knew as Dhandi, the moment he first pulled her out of a rubbish heap, how sad she was. She was crying so much, her cheeks wet with tears.
“They made fun of me because my daddy’s dead,” he first heard her cry, "and told me that I’m gonna be alone forever." They were so little, parents leaving too soon. That was the life of an Agraban orphan, a lost one, a lonely one.
“But you’re not alone,” he said to himself, sitting upon a pillow on the hovel floor. “You have Eden, binGud, and…me.”
The sound of smoke popping prompted the portly boy to jump to his feet. He stared squarely at the green-skinned Genie of the Bottle and her sky-blue companion.
“Oh, Miss Eden,” Babkak spoke quickly, straightening his shirt anxiously, “Iamsorryforinvadingbutiwaswaitingfordhandiand-”
“Calm down, Bab,” Eden pressed her fingers against the boy’s lips. “Now, enunciate.”
Babkak took a deep breath, the djinn removing her fingers.
“I was waiting for Dhandi, when she got back from her alone time-”
“Whoa, hold up,” Eden interrupted, concerned. “She’s running around Agrabah by herself? Did she say where she’s going?”
Babkak shook his head. “I don’t know. She seemed really upset.” He rubbed his armed. “I never heard her so mad at me before, especially when I asked her what happened yesterday.”
Eden kneeled down to Babkak. “She’s just going through something right now,” she said, gently. “All you have to do is just be patient with her and be a friend to her. Now, if you want to help, please help us look for her.”
“I can do that,” the boy answered.
The djinn smiled. “Cool. Now try looking in places that she might be and if you find her, bring her back here and we’ll pop right back. Got it?”
Babkak nodded and turned towards the door. As they watched the boy run down the stairs, Eden sunk down onto a pillow. Genie hovered above her, worried.
“Why the long face, Babe?” Genie asked.
Eden looked up, distress evident in her face.
“I don’t know what Mozenrath’s doing to my baby inside,” she said, “and I don’t know how I can tell her what’s wrong without scaring her or even giving him a reason to hurt her.” A crystalline tear rolled down her cheek.
Genie floated down next his beloved, catching the tears with his blue bulbous finger. He blew on them and they fluttered into bubbles, floating away with the breeze. The green-skinned djinn smiled, sniffing.
“Al and I faced him so many times,” Genie said, placing his huge hands upon her shoulders. “Even when it looked like we’re gonna be mamluk chow, we thwarted him then and we’re gonna thwart him now. ‘Cause if we don’t, this show is gonna be way too short!”
Dhandi slumped against the wall of the alley, the hubbub of merchants fighting a fire lessening. Her body ached as if she hadn’t walked in days and was forced to run a mile and keeping her head up was like balancing a load of bricks on her forehead.
In short, she was tired.
“Did I…start that fire?” Dhandi asked Amir.
“To an extent, yes,” Amir answered, the girl wincing. His voice was pounding against her head like a drum. “It reacted to your fear. Emotions can be your strength but also your weakness, one that many can exploit. We’ll work on that. So, how do you feel?”
“Why am I so tired?” she asked. “I wasn’t running that hard.”
“It’s the lessons. Because you’re a newbie, your body isn’t prepared for the exertion that magic is putting you through. When you’ve progressed far enough, you won’t feel as tired.”
“Oh (yawn),” Dhandi yawned, “How can I (yawn) get better (yawn)?”
“Sit down,” Amir instructed. Dhandi sunk down to the ground, crossing her legs Indian-style.
“Then breathe in and out.” Dhandi inhaled and exhaled.
“Uh, Amir?” she asked.
“What?”
“Why am I so important to you? Does it have anything to do with that pale man? Can you tell me?”
Amir smiled (though you can’t really tell when you can’t see him). “Why tell you when I can show you?”
A flood of images suddenly flashed in front of Dhandi’s eyes like flipping pictures in a book. Voices overlapped, eerily almost like priests in prayer. One voice she could tell apart- a frightened voice of a child, a boy.
Father, all I wanted to do was make you proud-
YOU ARE NOT MY SON! Another voice, clearly that of an elderly man, entered in her head. Figures of a curly-haired boy, a withered old man, and, regrettably familiar, a young man appeared.
LET GO OF ME! Shrieked the boy, the young man grabbing him by the hair. The old man fell to his knees, shriveling away further.
I will never consider you my son and I will never bow to you! The man said defiantly as he sunk into a pile of dust.
AMIR IS DEAD! The young man cackled. ALL THERE IS LEFT IS ME!
Dhandi grasped her head, drained further by the shrieking and the flashing until it went silent and all she could see was blank.
“Amir,” Dhandi whispered, her voice shaking, “did he kill you?”
“Yes,” Amir answered softly. “All I wanted to do was make my father proud, but I was cast aside because he became scared of me. All I want to do now is say I’m sorry for hurting him.”
“I’ll help,” Dhandi replied abruptly. “Just teach me how.”
“You’ll do that for me? But that man-”
“It’ll be my thanks for saving me and teaching me how to protect myself from him.”
“Okay, but first you need to regain your strength. Now do what I told you, clearing your mind of every little distraction until it is as blank as a piece of paper.”
Dhandi composed herself, inhaling and exhaling. Her head was growing heavy along with her eyelids, drooping over her pupils. To onlookers, she appeared to be sleeping, sitting up.
She opened her eyes, suddenly. She looked around, curious. She stared at her hands, amused. A smile appeared on her face, however not that of demure charm and mildness but of deviousness and malice.
“Dhandi!” Genie hollered, his lips forming a loudspeaker. He hovered above the city, distracted briefly by the rising smoke in the distance and nearly bumped into the dome of a mosque. Eden meanwhile combed beneath the clothesline in the familiar back way of the slums. The djinn collided with a sheet, an angry housewife chattering from her window.
“You really need use a fabric softener next time,” Eden retorted, pulling the sheet off her head. “It’s waaaay too-”
The djinn’s focus switched to a small figure below in a pink top and green harem pants.
“Dhandi!”
Rejoicing, she threw the sheet back on the line and made a beeline towards her young mistress.
“Dhandi, where have you been-” Eden started, but when she took a glance at the child’s face, she scowled distastefully.
“Mozenrath.”
Chapter 8: Explainations
It is amazing how a wicked smile can make the most adorable kid appear as an unholy demon. Such an effect can also be heightened by a few choice words as Eden was about to find out.
“Mozenrath,” the djinn scowled distastefully.
“Oh, you recognized me, Eden,” Dhandi or rather the sorcerer inside her replied, oozing amusement. “How long has it been? I heard the lovebirds finally got hitched. Had I known, I would have gotten them something. Flatware? A cake? Basket full of asps?”
Eden suddenly grabbed the child’s shoulders forcefully.
“Cut the small talk,” she growled. “What have you done to her?”
“So the little mouse is your master,” Mozenrath chuckled softly, pulling the hands off her shoulders. “Dhandi’s perfectly fine, just a little bit more…magical.”
“WHAT DID YOU DO?!” The djinn’s raven hair became a blazing flame.
“A little bit hot under the collar, aren’t we? Now, how about we go somewhere…less conspicuous, say your place?”
Eden’s hair extinguished itself into its normal appearance. However, the disapproving frown upon her face was still plastered on there. She grabs the girl’s shoulder and, in a poof of green smoke, the pair disappeared from the alley.
“Okay, got the message!” Genie hollered as he burst into the hovel. “How is she? Out with it!”
“Sugar lips,” Eden said calmly, sitting across from “Mozenrath” on the cushions, “she’s right here.” She pointed to the child who was smiling with perverse amusement. The blue djinn snarled as he stared down the girl, or rather, the sorcerer who cohabited within her.
“You thought you could get away with it, that we wouldn’t get wise to your plan, BUT YOU, SIR, ARE MISTAKEN!”
“Mozenrath” crossed her arms, a smug look upon her face. “Really? Care to explain?”
Genie smirked as he pulled out a blackboard out of thin air. He morphed into a college professor’s outfit, complete with forest green slacks and a tweed jacket with leather elbow patches.
“You,” he pointed to a frowning stick figure with a turban, “having failed to posses Al’s body, decided to hijack Dhandi’s body (pointed to a short stick figure with scribbled hair), knowing that she is the master of Eden.” He then pointed to a realistic chalk drawing of his beloved. “Thus, in gaining a new body, you also would possess the powers of a very powerful genie that would aid in your plans for total world conquest!” He pointed to a picture of stick figure standing triumphantly atop a globe with clouds and lightning bolts drawn around it.
“Mozenrath” held her fingers to her chin, contemplatively. “Not bad, but I have something more practical in mind.”
“Oh, I bet now you’re gonna tell it to us, so we can thwart it like we did the last time. You know, I’m shocked that you would repeat yourself so shamefully. You got to hire a writer. Now, I recommend Wendy Lee-”
“Oh, shut up!” Mozenrath shouted, only to be smacked on the head by Eden. The child looked at the djinn, smirking. “Really, hitting your own master? You’re lucky she’s doesn’t know what’s going right now. The effect of meditation, really.”
“I don’t want to do it,” Eden said, anguished, “but, just because you are in her body, I will not tolerate disrespect coming from her mouth.”
“You’ve really gotten that ‘concerned mother’ attitude down perfectly,” Mozenrath smiled, amused. “Must be from hanging around her. She’s so helpless. You should have seen been there when she had that dream last night. It was marvelous.”
Eden appeared to be on the verge of crying. Don’t cry, she thought to herself. Don’t give him the satisfaction.
“But I’m rambling. You wanted to hear my plan, didn’t you? Good, because it involves you.”
“AHA!” Genie pointed his fleshy finger at Mozenrath. “So it is world domination! Well, we won’t do it.”
“Simps,” “Mozenrath frowned, “It’s not about world conquest. It’s about rebirth.”
Genie looked at the child, mouth gaping.
“Rebirth?” Eden asked.
“Yes, I want a body.” The genies gawked at the girl for a long while, before Mozenrath leered. “Not HER! Honestly, name one other sorcerer who would willing spend the rest of his days as a little girl, especially one so homely! Little wonder she got mistaken as a boy.”
Eden held up her fist threateningly. Mozenrath rolled her eyes.
“If you would be sooooo gracious to let me explain.”
The green djinn lowered her fist down.
“As you all know, I didn’t have much time left time before the gauntlet would suck my life energy out entirely. Since I failed to possess a body as you have so kindly reminded me, I had to find another way of prolonging my life. So, upon research, I discovered instructions to create an artificial body, a golem that could be made into flesh and thus plant my soul into permanently.”
Eden glared intently all the while as the Dhandi imposter spoke.
“But here’s the rub.”
“Rub-a-dub-dub,” Genie smirked, receiving a glare from Mozenrath.
“Not only it would take a fairly long time, it could be done only by, get this, one with pure intentions.”
“Drives a stake through the heart of your plan, eh?” Genie drawled.
“No,” Mozenrath replied, “it just meant I couldn’t do it myself nor could I get an ally to do it. I also couldn’t force an enemy to do it. So I settled for an innocent.”
“An innocent?” Eden repeated. “Does that mean-”
“I was picking someone at random? Yes, though it was Xerxes who did the picking. I was hoping he would have gotten a boy, a body I could fall back on in case the whole thing failed.”
“So, not just Dhandi would have been at risk,” Eden had a worried look on her face. “Babkak or Wahid…”
“So, anyway, once I had transplanted my soul into the child’s body,” Mozenrath continued, “I would teach him or, this case, her the ritual along with magicks that would aid them. Any questions?”
“Oh, oh, teacher!” Genie waved his hand obnoxiously. “You said it would involve us.”
“Oh, yes.” Mozenrath held her fingers to her chin pensively. “Have you ever heard of Persephone’s Dawn?”
Genie followed suit until a light bulb popped above his head. Pulling the light switch, he made the bulb vanish and pulled out a massive book from his pocket. The cover reading Encyclopedia of Obscure Rarities, Genie flipped through it, until he got to “P”.
“Hmmm, let see,” he scanned the columns of type, “pairaka…Pasiphae’s chastity belt…Peirene…no. Ah, Persephone’s Dawn. ‘A breed of narcissus, treasured by the Goddess of Spring herself, it has the power of reanimation and even the conversion of mud into flesh.’ Wow. So you want us to go shopping for some daffodils? No problem, we’ll just get some.”
“Uh, baby?” Eden interjected, pointing to the rest of the entry. “’The narcissus can only be found in the Gardens of Hades and if taken out of the Underworld for extended periods, it will fade within hours, rendering its properties useless’.”
Examining the paragraph, Genie shut the book, dust flying. “So, no pressure?”
“You didn’t answer our question, Mozy,” Eden asserted towards Mozenrath. The child smirked.
“You’re right,” “she” said. “Well, I’ll need somebody to protect little Dhandi for me. After all, it would be poor judgment on your part, Eden, to let a little girl wander around the Underworld by herself, let alone in the Gardens of Hades.”
“Well, what if Dhandi doesn’t want to do it?” Eden asked, glaring at the child. “You said it wouldn’t work if she-”
“But she does,” Mozenrath replied, smiling maliciously. “You see, I’m very persuasive.”
“We’ll see how persuasive you are when she finds out that she’s being tricked. Tell her to wake up.”
“I will, but in her best interest, I wouldn’t tell if I were you.”
Eden glared at Mozenrath, fear and anger in her expression. “You wouldn’t. It wouldn’t do you any good.” Genie grabbed the shoulders of his love, as if holding her back.
“Oh, but I would and there is more than one way for a spirit as myself to continue on. She is a good body, but she is also expendable. If you tell her or even that street rat and his other annoying sidekicks, I will kill her.”
Eden breathed short and heavy as the imposter of her mistress turned her focus away from the djinn and towards the orange dress. She dug her face into her blue beau’s chest, him stroking her hair.
“She’ll wonder what’s going on and she will find out anyway,” Genie spoke up. “What will we be able to tell her?”
“Mozenrath” looked up from the dress. “All right, just refer to me as…Amir.”
Eden nodded, glaring defiantly.
Mozenrath smiled. “When she is ready, you will take her to The Citadel. I suggest that from now until the moment I am separate from this carcass, don’t get cute with me.”
She sat down upon the cushions and closed her eyes. Eyes reopen as Dhandi stretched and looked around, curious.
“Amir, how did we get-” she asked seemingly herself, until her eyes met Eden’s. “Eden! You’re back!”
Joyous, Dhandi leapt from her seat and hugged Eden around her waist. “Oh, I’m sorry I ran off. Did you bring me back here?”
Eden managed a smile, despite what had occurred whilst this child was entranced in meditation. “Yes. I sure did. You gave me a scare when Babkak-”
“Oh, Babkak,” Dhandi interrupted, “I need to apologize. I was mean to him this morning.”
“Don’t worry. We’ll probably see him again today. Look who’s here.” Eden pointed to Genie and Dhandi giggled with delight at sight of the Blue Genie of the Lamp, running towards him.
“Hey, Dhanders!” He lifted the girl up like an uncle to his favorite niece. “Haven’t seen you in a while.”
“You too. Did Aladdin and Jasmine get me and Eden’s gift?”
“Oh, the necklace? Yeah, they loved it. Where did you find the shells?”
“Over by the pier, all over the place,” Dhandi stretched her hands out.
“Hey, baby,” Eden asked, the girl turning towards her, “what did you do while I was gone? I hope you weren’t lonely.”
“No,” Dhandi replied, “I wasn’t lonely. I had Amir.”
“Amir?”
“Yeah, he’s kinda a ghost, but he’s really smart and he’s teaching me magic. He wanted to meet you, but he’s stuck in my head so-”
“Actually,” Eden interrupted, “I did meet…him.”
Dhandi’s eyes brightened. “You did? How- When did he- Was he nice to you?”
Eden bit her lower lip. Allah, how she hated lying to her girl. However, it was to keep her safe.
Safe from him.
“He told me that you were gonna help him,” she said. “He also talked about going to that place you were yesterday.”
Dhandi frowned slightly, remembering it. “Could you go with me? I don’t want to be there without you.”
“I’ll go wherever you go, sweetie,” Eden took Dhandi into her arms, “but only when you feel you’re ready.”
“I’ll go too!” Genie interjected, transforming into a knight in shining armor. “For thine ladies, I willst risk life and limb!”
Dhandi beamed. “Thank you.”
Chapter 9: Departure
The rising dawn spilling through the windows of the hovel, Eden sighed as she looked at Dhandi as the child slept peacefully, nestled underneath a blanket. The pair of genies “sat” nearby on the cushions.
“Hey, Babe?” Genie waved his enormous hand in front of his girlfriend’s face. The djinn of the Lamp turned to him with expression tinged with slight annoyance. “How’s it going, with the possession and the relative freakiness that goes with it?”
Sighing, Eden pulled the blanket off Dhandi and revealed that the child was hovering about three feet above the cushions, her body perfectly level as if she was sleeping on an invisible mattress.
“Should we get a young priest and an old priest?” Genie asked, inspecting her body.
“No,” Eden replied, placing the blanket back on Dhandi, “but I’m welcoming any other suggestions, ones that’ll toss the pest out without hurting Dhandi.”
“We could try tricking him into drinking the Elixir of Life. That managed to work last time, though there was a struggle-”
“No,” Eden shook her head, despondently, “Mozenrath will know and he might kick Dhandi out. Besides, he doesn’t have anything even resembling a body.”
“Come again?” Genie looked at her.
“All that’s left of him is a pile of ash at the bottom of a bath.” Eden looked at Genie. “I don’t think he had any intention of turning back once he got in.”
Genie glanced back at Eden, sheepishly. “Dang, that got shot down fast.”
The green-skinned djinn began gushing tears. Genie placed his enormous hand on her shoulder. “Eden?”
“It’s been a week and-and she doesn’t know,” Eden sobbed, “and I-I…I’m not even sure she’ll be the same girl I love after all this.”
Genie regarded Eden, tilting her chin up with his bulbous finger and smiled, reassuringly. “We’ll help her, remember?” he said. “She’ll be all right when all this is over, 100 percent.”
Eden smiled slightly. “I hope you’re right.”
She looked at Dhandi once more. “The more she learns, the sooner she can be free.”
Dhandi’s feet touched down on the cool sand, Amir watching and nodding approvingly.
“Not bad,” Amir said, approaching Dhandi, who reached down and brushed the sand of her soles. “You’ve been making great progress. I think you might be ready.”
“Yep,” Dhandi beamed. “Soon, we’ll be able to see each other for real, not just as dreams.”
“Yeah,” Amir smirked. Dhandi then darted off, the boy double-taking for a moment and he began running after her, guided by the quick trail of footprints in the sand.
“Hey!” Amir shouted as Dhandi dove behind a massive rock, giggling. Panting, he peered behind, Dhandi smiling. “What was that for?”
“Nothing,” she said, summoning pieces of paper, “Just wanted to run, make you have some fun. So, what are you gonna do when you have your own body?”
“I guess start where I left off,” he replied, eyeing Dhandi, squatting down and drawing on the paper with a piece of charcoal. “What are you doing?”
“Making a memory,” Dhandi looked up from her drawing, a crude portrait of Amir and herself, hover lines beneath them. “Got a whole bunch of them. Wanna look?”
Dhandi passed up a picture of a rake-thin dancer to Amir. Amir inspected, interested.
“Who is it of?” Amir asked, passing it back to Dhandi. Dhandi glanced at it, smiling.
“It’s a girl in a story I like. She loved dancing more than anything. Then she fell in love and got married and had a baby.”
“What happened to her?”
“Well, there was this very mean shoemaker who was also a sorcerer and he was in love with the girl, but she didn’t love him back. So he made a pair of sandals for her, but there was spell on them. Anyone who put them on would have to dance forever, no stopping ever.”
“So she kept on dancing, then.”
“Uh-huh and dancing and dancing, until she danced out of town, leaving behind her husband and her baby,” Dhandi continued. “No one knows what happened to her, if she’s still alive or she died because she danced so long and so hard without rest.”
“What do you think happened to her?” Amir asked, coolly.
“I think…she’s still alive, waiting for her hero to come and take those shoes off her and reunite her with her baby.”
Amir groaned slightly disgusted. Dhandi looked up, quizzically.
“What?”
“There’s that whole ‘heroes’ thing again,” he said. “You shouldn’t depend on heroes to get anything done.”
“Well, why not? Aladdin’s a hero and he always-”
“Yeah, but heroes can fail, die, or even become the thing they’re trying to protect against. You shouldn’t believe in heroes.”
Dhandi wanted to ask him why he had against heroes, but something popped in her head. Maybe when he needed one most of all, she thought, he or she didn’t come.
“Well, what should we believe in if not heroes?” she asked, instead.
“Ourselves, I guess,” Amir replied, looking at another picture, a figure surrounded by little hearts. “Who is this Wahid kid and why do you have little hearts around him?”
Blushing, Dhandi snatched the picture from Amir, who is smirking as if he found out a secret.
“Hey, sweetheart, time to wake up,” Eden nudged Dhandi’s body, now planted firmly on the ground. Dhandi yawned, rubbing the accumulation of sleep from her eyes.
“Did you sleep okay?”
Dhandi nodded.
“You hungry?”
Dhandi nodded her head more energetically. Eden smiled and, summoning a frying pan along with eggs, flat pita bread, round black olives, plump tomatoes and cucumbers, a lump of white cheese, a spice rack of multi-labeled bottles and jars, and a bottle of olive oil, lit a flame with a snap of her fingers. Soon the delicious scent of scrambled eggs, pan-fired cheese, and bread floated in the air.
“Eat up,” Eden announced, placing the plate of scrambled eggs, sliced tomatoes and cucumbers, bread, and cheese before Dhandi along with a bowl of olives. Dhandi scooped the eggs with her hand and plopped them into her mouth, only to have Eden point to the pita in front of her. “Use the bread, babe. You’re not an animal.”
Embarrassed, Dhandi swallowed what was in her mouth and scooped the eggs up, this time using the pita.
“So, how’s your lessons going, Dhanders?” Genie asked, popping an olive in his mouth.
“Oh, great,” she replied, swallowing her food. “Amir said I might be ready.”
“Oh,” Eden spoke up, making the frying pan vanish back into thin air, “really, ‘cause we have to make sure-”
“Really, I am and I’m not scare because you’re gonna be with me. Genie, too.”
“She’s right,” Genie replied, taking another olive. Eden smiled, a bit uneasy though. She wasn’t ready to tell her quite yet about her having to go to the Underworld.
“Well, you’ll have talk to Father binGud before we head out about homework,” the green-skinned djinn said. “I don’t want you missing the important stuff while we’re gone.”
Dhandi nodded readily, mouth stuffed with eggs and bits of vegetables.
The sun hung high above Agrabah as Dhandi trudged away from the mosque, a bag slung over her back filled to the brim with scrolls. Father binGud had the habit of giving extra homework to those who asked for it or who he deemed deserved it, but as the scroll littered with algebraic equations popped out of the sack, Dhandi began to regret telling him that she would be absent for an indefinite time.
“ASFOUR, QUIT IT!” Dhandi’s ears perked as she turned her head. She frowned, seeing Babkak at the receiving end of a wet-willy over by the well. The rotund boy shrieked as Asfour’s moistened finger prodded into his ear, two burly boys held him at both sides.
“Stupid boys,” she frowned, picking up the scroll, “bad enough they pick on me, now Bab?”
Suddenly, she smirked playfully as a plan formulated in her head. Crouching out of sight, she crept closer. She peeked from behind a barrel. The boys were now working towards his underwear. Dhandi focused on a small corner of one of the boys’ shirt who was holding a squirming Babkak.
“Come one,” she thought to herself, her power glowing brightly inside her head. Suddenly, a small flame ignited on the shirt and the sound of a boy shrieking in horror as he tried to extinguish the fire echoed in the alley. Asfour and the other boy pushed Babkak aside, rushing to aid their friend. Their victim crawled to his feet and darted away. Dhandi chuckled to herself as she watched the scene.
Babkak panted as he ran into the barrel where Dhandi hid herself. He looked down and uttered a “hi” to the girl.
“Hey,” she answered, getting up, “come on and run before they put it out.” Before the boy could answer, Dhandi took Babkak by the hand and darted down the alley.
Approaching the doorway of her hovel, Dhandi and the sweating Babkak slouched against the sun-baked wall, exhausted though upon Dhandi’s face is a look of triumph.
“Hey…(pant),” Babkak turned to Dhandi, “(pant)…binGud gave you a lot of homework…(pant)…why?”
“Well…(pant),” Dhandi replied, “he...(pant)…doesn’t want me to (pant) fall behind while (pant) I’m gone.”
Babkak’s eyes widen with curiosity. “Where are you going?”
“Oh, on a trip with Eden and her boyfriend,” Dhandi answered in a coy tone.
“Where?”
“Nowhere in particular.”
Babkak frowned. “Why are you keeping secrets?”
“I’m not keeping secrets,” Dhandi replied. “Sometimes people just don’t want to tell other people things.”
“You’ve been acting weird since last week,” Babkak sniffed. “You never want to play with me anymore.”
“No,” Dhandi sputtered, “it’s nothing like that. I’m just going through...changes.”
Babkak looked at his friend, questionably. “Is it like...changes that happen to girls when they’re older, like what binGud talked about two weeks ago?”
“Yeah,” she said quickly, “sure, something like that.”
Babkak glared at her as if she had asparagus sprouting out of her nose. “Ooookay, but when you get back, you better not be looking at me funny. I’m not ready for it.”
Chapter 10: Preparation
Xerxes swam through the empty black halls of his master’s keep, imitating that one would construe as pacing. For the past week, he chipped one of his fangs on bathroom tile, had to struggle out of a muzzle, fought off the more feral beasts that kept on snapping at him during feeding time in the dungeons below, and squirming through the piles of mamluks that had fallen into disrepair and collapsed upon him. But it was not in vain to keep the Citadel up and running.
Master was coming back.
A massive puff of light blue smoke and the shriek of an eel appeared. Coughing, Xerxes saw that the smoke revealed two genies and a little human clinging to a pink glass bottle.
“Thank you for flying the friendly skies with Genie Travels” Genie announced as a pilot in a smart navy blue uniform, “We have arrived at 1503 hours, roundtrip from Agrabah to scenic Land of Black Sand, known for its export of terror and general ickyness.”
Dhandi looked around, scooting closer to Eden.
Eden glanced down at her charge, smiling reassuringly. “Don’t worry, babe. Remember what we talked about?”
Dhandi nodded.
“Good girl.”
Dhandi suddenly pointed Xerxes as the smoke finally cleared. “It’s that worm thing.”
Xerxes gurgled indignantly, hearing the child’s comment. His pilot uniform dissolving into air, Genie turned to Dhandi.
“We’ve gotten this far,” he said to her. “What else does Amir say?”
Dhandi scratched her head in thought. “He said to look in the lab for a...an esophagus.”
“Sarcophagus,” Amir corrected her.
“Sarcophagus,” she repeated. “Look for a sarcophagus...that has, um, a hole in its mouth...in the dungeon.”
“And we need to collect the ash from the bath into a jar,” Amir continued, “dried clay and water, too.”
“Ash...from the bath and dried clay and water too.”
“Okay,” Genie saluted, before turning to Eden, “We’ll get the dry stuff and the basket case.”
“And I’ll get the water,” Dhandi added, eagerly.
“No,” Amir replied, firmly. “No, you have to go to the library to study.”
Upon hearing Amir, Dhandi frowned. Eden hovered over to her mistress. “What’s wrong?”
“Amir wants me to study, but I want to help you guys. Not fair for you guys to do all the work.”
“Don’t worry. We got it. Besides, you’ve got some work of your own.”
“Yeah, but it’s kinda like school and I just got away from it an hour ago.”
“Well, if it all gets too much, you can ask for a recess.”
“Thanks, but I don’t really trust that...uh, flying worm thing-”
“If it tries to bite you, you can stuff a sock into its mouth.”
Dhandi smiled as Eden patted her shoulder and dissipated with Genie, leaving Dhandi and Xerxes alone in the hallway. The girl looked around, becoming overwhelmed by the claustrophobic surroundings despite its vast size. She turned to the familiar.
“Uh, which way’s the library?”
“She probably knows something is up,” Eden said, turning into a vacuum cleaner, “the way we keep leaving her alone.”
“Yeah, but we can’t risk Mozy eavesdroppin’ on us,” Genie explained, watching Eden suck up the ashes in the still charred bath. “My guess’s he’s up to something else. Evil teen wizard is not exactly known for his altruism. Dhandi’s about as safe in his hands as a teen heartthrob at a Pasadena Mary Sue convention.”
“Amen,” Eden agreed, morphing into her normal appearance with a stone jar in her hand, “but...argh, he’s still got us by the tail, Suga. We can’t do anything while he’s still in her body.”
“But what’s to stop us from foiling him when he’s out and in the open?” Genie morphed into Jack Nicholson. “Alls we gotta do is to keep him from the one thing he’ll be gunning for, his Achilles heel possibly, Doll.”
“And what would that be?” Eden inquired, getting the gist of what he meant.
“A glove?” Dhandi asked, staring at the gauntlet lying upon the table in the center of the library.
“No,” Amir said, “it’s much more than that.”
Crawling on top of a chair, Dhandi reached towards it, Xerxes swimming beside her, grinning approvingly. Spotting Xerxes, she pulled back, apprehensively.
He’s looking at me funny, she thought. I wished I had that sock Eden was talking about.
“He won’t bite,” Amir said, “as long as you show him who the boss is.”
Dhandi stared back at the gauntlet and reached towards it, still keeping a wary eye on Xerxes. She grabbed the gauntlet and slunk back into the chair, sitting down on the cushion. She gazed at the great leather thing in her tiny hand, curious.
“That guy wore this,” she stated, “when he made me drink that gross stuff.”
“It was his source of power,” Amir explained, a tint of longing in his tone, “the thing he let devour his hand until it was nothing but bone.”
As if holding a handful of cow dung, Dhandi threw the gauntlet back on the table. “Ew.”
Xerxes swam towards it and nudged it closer to the child. The child recoiled, scooting the chair backwards.
“Oh, it won’t hurt you now,” Amir chuckled, slightly amused. “It only begins to feed on you when you promise your very flesh in exchange for the power it possesses within its being.”
“Uh, yeah,” Dhandi replied, a bit uneasy when she picked it back up.
Not gonna do that anytime soon, she thought.
“Put it on.” Dhandi glanced at the gauntlet with a “you have got to kidding me” expression, but, without thinking, slid her hand in, her skin brushing against the rather abrasive lining. She held it up to the light. It didn’t felt like it, but the gauntlet seem to have swallowed up more than half of her arm like a giant tan fish with an enormous mouth.
“Now what?” she asked, moving her fingers around in the great, long leather digits.
“Concentrate on making a mage light,” Amir instructed. “Use your hand.”
Dhandi stretched forth her gloved finger and squinting, thought of her light.
Orange and bright, that’s how she knew it.
The tip of her finger glowed that same color, growing brighter as it formed a little ball.
“Good, very good.”
“Good,” the eel gurgled, “boy do good.”
“I’m not a boy,” Dhandi said to the eel. “I’m a girl. Girl.”
“Boy,” Xerxes smirked obstinately.
“Girrrrrl,” Dhandi enunciated.
“Booooooy.” The eel chuckled as Dhandi shook her head and returned to her mage light which had grown to the size of a kickball to her shock. She shook it off and it hovered in place a few inches in front of her.
“Wow, that’s huge,” she said, in awe, “Nobody bump into it.”
Swimming, Xerxes looked at the mage light. He sniffed it, embers suddenly flying up into his nostrils. He shrieked in pain, writhing and coiling until he plopped down on the floor of the library. Kneeling down, Dhandi stared at him for a while, poking him. The familiar shivered nervously.
“Are you okay?” the girl asked, picking him up.
He gurgled as she cradled him in her arms like a baby.
“Silly...uh, bo-...er...baby, you shouldn’t be sniffing stuff you shouldn’t be near.”
Coming to, Xerxes hissed as he slithered out of Dhandi’s arms.
“Grouch,” she said, stumbling a bit. She clung to the table for support. “Feeling a bit woozy, Amir.”
“The gauntlet takes a lot out of you,” Amir said. “Meditate for a while and we’ll get started on reading.”
Dhandi nodded as she sat down on the floor, but not without taking the gauntlet off. She wasn’t very comfortable with the idea of having an arm of nothing but bone and she wasn’t going to let it have a nibble behind her back. She crossed her legs in the lotus position that Eden taught her one day and closed her eyes, her breath slowing down and becoming more relaxed until...
Xerxes swam back into the library and sniffed the child’s hair. “Master? Master here?”
“In the flesh,” Mozenrath chuckled as “he” opened “his” eyes. “Well, not quite, but getting closer as we speak.”
“He” stood up, picking up the gauntlet off the ground. “He” gazed longingly at it and began rubbing it against “his” cheek like one would do with the hand of a beloved while sighing softly.
“Soon, my precious.” “He” placed it back on the table and then turned to Xerxes.
“Ah, my faithful familiar,” “he” cooed as “he” stroked the eel, but then wrapped a tiny hand around its neck and squeezed tightly as “his” adoring tone turned hostile, “you couldn’t tell the difference between a boy and a girl?!”
“Sor-ry, Mas-ster,” Xerxes gasped.
“Still,” Mozenrath released “his” grip, “I can’t blame you, considering how homely this kid is. Not to mention her choices in clothes.” “He” posed in the familiar orange dress and brown coat combo. “Probably covered with lice, knowing those street rats. Still, she has come such a long way.”
“Genies here,” Xerxes snickered.
“I know,” Mozenrath smirked, “Isn’t it marvelous. The stupid kid’s actually more useful to me than any boy.”
Xerxes cackled. Mozenrath chortled along as “he” walked towards one of the massive bookcases, pulled out an atlas and flipped over to a page.
“Still, we have so much to do. Xerxes, round up some mamluks and meet us here.” “He” pointed to a spot on the map. “You know what to bring.”
“Yes, Master.” Xerxes swam out of the library, Mozenrath standing alone and smiling.
“If all goes to plan, I might get more than just a new body.”
Chapter 11: Dance for Me
“Okay,” Eden pulled out a ledger and a pencil as Genie chucked the massive sarcophagus down upon the grimy marble floor and panted, “sarcophagus?”
“Check,” Genie pointed to the casket, huffing.
“Ashes?”
“Check.” Genie held up the stone jar.
“Clay dust?”
“(Cough) Check.” A larger jar manifested in his hand.
“Water?”
A splash was heard as Genie, wearing goggles and a snorkel, popped out of a huge container of water and gave a massive thumbs-up.
“Good,” Eden said, the ledger and pencil evaporating into the air.
Taking off the goggles and the snorkels, Genie shook himself off like a dog. “Now, let’s see what else Señor Wences bids us to do.”
“I can only assume you’re referring to me,” Mozenrath said, standing behind the Djinn of the Lamp.
Genie let out a shriek. “EEK! A MAN!”
Mozenrath pursed “his” lips in annoyance as Genie hovered over to Eden, whistling nonchalantly.
“You’re probably wondering what we’re going to do with this stuff,” the Dhandi imposter said, calmly as “he” held out the atlas, wobbly. “Once Dhandi comes out of her trance and memorizes the ritual, you’ll go to here.”
“He” pointed to the spot on the map. The djinns studied the map, until Genie spoke up.
“Wait a minute,” Genie rejoined. “It’s a cemetery! Ewwwww.”
“But it’s also a stone-throw away from the entrance to the Underworld,” Eden pointed out.
“By Allah, we have a pair of geniuses,” Mozenrath declared, throwing up “his” arms in mock amazement. “But, yes, we are going to there. As said before, we won’t have much time once the flower leaves the Underworld and Dhandi still has to prepare the golem.”
“So, while the golem hardens,” Eden adds, “we go down and get the Persephone’s Dawn.”
“Bingo,” Mozenrath quipped. “Now, the kid needs a dress, so get cracking.”
“What,” Genie transformed into a bony woman ala Joan Rivers, “Orange too lively for ya? It’s adoooorable on her!”
“Yes,” the sorcerer sneered, looking at Dhandi’s dress with utter loathing, “but I’d like her to be dressed good enough to be caught...dead in.”
“Oh,” Genie said, getting what “he” meant.
Mozenrath smiled smugly, as “he” turned to leave. “Dhandi will be wondering what Amir is up to. I mustn’t keep her waiting.”
As the sorcerer turned the corner, Genie stretched his neck, following “him”.
“Argh,” Eden growled, “I know it's for Dhandi, but I am gonna to inflict some serious pain on his butt if he asks me to do his laundry!”
“Hey, babe,” Genie asked, reeling his head back into his shoulders, “do you remember seeing the Crystal of Ix around here?”
Eden recoiled with fear. “He has that here?!”
“Yeah, leave it to Boy-Though-Currently-Girl Wizard to have something like that lying around, but...”
“But what?” Eden grabbed Genie’s shoulders with a sense of urgency.
“It’s not here.”
Eden lets go of his shoulders. “Well, why are we worried?”
“I still think that Mozen-runt has something up his sleeve,” Genie placed his chubby fingers upon his chin.
“Either way, we still can’t do anything about until Dhandi’s out of his grasp.” Eden began to hover her way towards the stairway.
“Where you’re goin’?” Genie inquired.
“Up to rummage through his closet,” Eden smirked mischievously.
“Remember,” Genie replied, trilling urgently.
“Yes, but what he doesn’t know won’t hurt her. Besides, he said he wanted a dress.”
Dhandi stretched, getting up from her lotus position. She looked around the library, mind and flesh refreshed. Her eyes traced the room, down to its nearly spent candles. However, a question arose in her head.
“Where did the gauntlet go?” she asked, herself. True, she recalled it being back on the table just before she meditated. “Maybe the eel took it.”
“That’s probably it,” Amir spoke up. “You ready to learn the ritual?”
Dhandi nodded.
“Good. The book is on the lower fifth shelf, to the right.”
Taking a step to her right, Dhandi counted the shelves in her head. Coming upon the fifth one, Amir guided her to a musty tome, third on the shelf.
“Pull it out,” he whispered, “and turned to the page titled ‘Reanimation through Construction’.”
Dhandi obliged, flipping the pages slowly, scanning it. “Uh, Amir?”
“Yes?”
“I dreamed about him again.”
“That man? Was it when I left you alone for a break?” Amir’s voice was tinged with curiosity.
“Yeah.” The girl kept turning the pages of the tome.
“What did he do?”
“Well, I was dreaming I was the girl in that story I told you about, remember?”
“Yeah, the one with the dancing sandals.”
“Well, this time, he was the one who gave her the sandals. I didn’t want to take them, ‘cause you know what happens. But then he picked me up. I was screaming, but he just smiled and said, ‘Dance for me’.”
“And you did,” Amir said, not guessing.
“Yeah, but he danced with me. But the weird part was when I twirled, he got younger and I got older.”
“Wow, that is weird,” Amir replied, amusement in his tone.
“Yeah,” Dhandi came upon the page, “Reanimation through Construction”. “Found it.”
“Great. The ritual should be in there.”
Dhandi scanned the page, reading aloud the more difficult words.
“...‘my life breath for this form’s...lead mine to his...’. Uh, Amir?”
“Yeah?”
“What does it mean, ‘my life breath for this form’s’?”
“It’s kinda an offering,” Amir explained. “It’s like a vow, your promise to guide and protect the body and its soul.”
“Then I’ll protect you,” Dhandi said. “Instead of coming back here, you can live with me and Eden.”
“Would she be all right with that?”
“Hey, she already accepted you being in my body and you’ll have to meet Babkak and Father binGud and Aladdin.”
“I might have to. Now, let’s get back to it.”
Dhandi returned her focus on the page. “Okay, um...‘mix the clay, the ashes, and the water until they form a ma-label...’...”
“Malleable.”
“Malleable.” A gentle nudging in the back of her head prompted her to turn her head. She jumped out of her seat slightly, at the sight of Xerxes.
“Boy,” the eel gurgled, the gauntlet in his mouth.
“I knew it,” Dhandi said, cautiously taking the gauntlet from the familiar’s jaws. She looked at it. “What am I gonna do with this?”
“Just hold on to it, just in case you need a boost.”
Dhandi nodded, tucking the gauntlet in her sash and returning back to the book. However, the silence of the library was briefly interrupted once more by the poofing sounds of a djinn appearing and Xerxes shrieking.
“Hey, babe!” Eden announced. Dhandi turned towards her djinn, smiling. “How’s studying?”
“Good,” Dhandi replied. “Amir’s helping a lot.”
“Genie butting in,” Xerxes hissed.
Dhandi pushed at the eel, which let out a yelp. “How’s getting the stuff?”
“Well, it’s ready to go. You just need to learn the incantation now, before we go-” Catching herself, Eden covered her mouth.
“Go?” Dhandi inquired, curious. “Where?”
“Uh, well, there’s one more thing we need to get to bring...Amir to life, but we can’t get it here.”
“Well, where do we need to go?”
Eden bit her lip, uneasily looking at Dhandi. “Well, promise me you won’t get scared. No, chances are you’re gonna be scared, but just remember what me and Genie promised you.”
Dhandi nodded, getting a bit worried. How horrible the place could it be that it would even scare Eden?
“We need to go to the Underworld,” Eden calmly explained to the child, “to get the most important part, the...”
“Persephone’s Dawn flower,” Dhandi finished the sentence. “They mentioned it a lot in the book.”
“Oh, well,” Eden had a bewildered yet relieved expression on her face, “do you still want to do it? Genie and I could get it for you.”
“Eden,” Dhandi took Eden’s hand and squeezed it, “I have to do it. Amir said I had to. It’s part of the ritual.”
Eden regarded the child with amazement. “How brave this child was, even for her age,” she thought. “Well, considering what happened to her, she’s taking it with a lot of guts, like Aladdin has. But then again, she doesn’t know the half of it.”
“But you can come with me,” Dhandi added. “It might get scary.”
“You know I will,” the djinn smiled, hugging the child.
The fluffy moment between the child and her green-skinned foster mother was interrupted by the sounds of gagging produced by Xerxes. The djinn shot a glare likened to a dragon at the familiar, prompting him to whine and swim out the door.
“Now, Amir asked me to make something for you,” Eden pulled out from air a little outfit of a Brittany blue harem bodice with long white loose sleeves and a long dark blue skirt. The child wore a look of amazement on her face, as she touched the folds of the soft and silky fabric.
“By Allah,” she said, breathlessly, “it’s so...”
“Pretty?”
“Beautiful! It’s...are you sure I can wear it?”
The djinn nodded, the girl taking the dress from her, “but there’s something you should know about it.”
“What?” Dhandi asked, holding the outfit up.
“It’s enchanted.”
“How?”
“Listen,” Eden placed her hand on the girl’s shoulder, “while you’re wearing it in the Underworld, do not look in a mirror.”
“Uh, why?” Dhandi asked, uneasily. She didn’t like where this was heading, reminded of those tales of the like.
“Let me put it this way,” Eden elucidated, “you won’t like what you might see.”
Dhandi bit her lip, with that in mind. “But is it all right for me to try it on now?”
“Sure, but after you try it out, you get back to studying.”
Dhandi nodded eagerly as she darted out past Eden.
“The bedroom’s upstairs!” Eden shouted after. “Don’t look in the closet!”
Perhaps the only room absent of cobwebs and dust, the bedroom easily dwarfed their hovel, the walls decorated with intricate murals that Dhandi took a moment or two to inspect. The pictures revealed a form of a dark blue light, turning into a human as an elderly man appeared to watch approvingly.
“It’s like the ones in the mosque,” she said to herself, reading the narrative story. She had noticed that of the two figures present, two men, the elder of the two had his face scratched off in a crude and violent manner. The room had one window, however locked and no natural light beside that of the dismal aura that existed over the land.
The child summoned her mage light, illuminating the room further. She watched it carefully, not to catch the drapes hanging above her on fire whilst on her search for a mirror. Her eyes focused upon a cloth of a very smooth material draped over a form. Setting her outfit upon the black divan in the center of the room, Dhandi ventured towards the object. She took the corners of the fabric and swiftly pulled it off.
Her curiosity was rewarded with a full length mirror in an ebony frame. Dhandi pressed her fingers against the looking glass, her twin mimicking. She smiled as she turned back to her outfit. She slid her brown coat off and folded it neatly on the divan. Next came her sash, which the gauntlet slid out and fell upon the floor. She folded the sash, but looked frantically for the gauntlet.
“There you are,” she said, picking the gauntlet and setting it down on the sash. “Now, my dress.”
Pulling off her cheerful orange dress, Dhandi quickly slid the skirt up her body, the modest part of her taking over. Then she pulled her head through the collar of the bodice, guiding the rest of her upper body to fill it. She turned back to the mirror, the hem of her skirt swooshing against her feet. She twirled around, giggling as she became lost in the moment.
“That dress is very becoming on you,” Amir spoke.
Dhandi stopped twirling for a moment, getting back to reality. “I look like a princess. Maybe this is how Jasmine feels getting dressed.”
“Maybe.”
“This dress seems too pretty for me,” Dhandi chuckled.
“You look like a princess to me.”
Dhandi blushed. “I...I...”
“Dance for me, please.”
Dhandi bit her lip, surprised. “Well, okay.”
She began stepping back, picking up her skirt and bowing. She twirled, her skirt flickering in the air. She leapt a short ways, keeping in sight of the mirror. She shook her hips, though a bit awkwardly. She then got on her tiptoes and attempted to pirouette, she becoming very light headed. However, gravity and a lack of balance took over as she tripped over the bundled up cloth and fell flat on her face.
“I’m sorry,” Dhandi rubbed her forehead gingerly. “I’m not as good as in my dreams.”
“Don’t worry,” Amir reassured her. “I liked it.”
The girl smiled, “Maybe, one day, you can dance with me.”
“Yes. I would like that.”
Chapter 12: Out-of-Show-Experience
“Whoa, what a dump.”
Those were the first words uttered by the blue-skinned djinn when he and his traveling companions, the green-skinned djinn Eden and her young mistress Dhandi, appeared in the rather morose-looking burial ground. Its chipped and moss-infested Grecian grave markings had seen better days as did the pitiful and limp olive trees amidst the brambles and unkempt grass growing haphazardly along the jagged ledge overseeing a ragged ravine. However, as the arrivals looked further towards a cavern off in the distance, no grass grew in the pale, sickly soil near its monstrous mouth.
“Well, this dump is where Amir said to be,” Eden pointed out, the sarcophagus and the jars appearing behind them with a wave of her hand. She turned to Dhandi, the child mouthing words in rehearsal. “Are you ready to do it?”
Dhandi blinked, her train of thought derailed momentarily. “I’m might be,” she said, turning to her djinn. “It’s a little confusing, but…”
“Me or Amir will help you through it if you get stuck.”
“I think I can do it now. Thank you.”
Eden smiled and zapped a white smock on Dhandi. The child looked at it and, getting the gist of the djinn’s intent, beamed approvingly.
“Go ahead, Babes,” Eden urged her on, warmly. “Go.”
Breathing in and out, Dhandi approached the sarcophagus, though tripping on the tip of a crystalline rock poking out on the way there, and, with a bit of exertion, she threw open the lid. Pressing her hands together, she took a bow.
“Merciful Allah, keep my purity intact,” she prayed aloud. “Blessed Merciful Father, for he made the earth and sky, I humble myself. Keep my purpose as pure as your blessed sand, your merciful water, your cleansing fire, and your divine wind.”
Sniffing, Genie wiped away a tear. “That was beautiful.”
Eden nudged him gently as the child walked to the jars of clay. She picked up one and carried it towards the sarcophagus. Dhandi pulled the stopper off, revealing it to be filled with clay dust. Straining, she picked it up again and poured the contents into the sarcophagus. She coughed as the dust rose from the enormous mound.
“Blessed Allah, keep me pure as this clay, refined and ground.” Dhandi bowed once again and turned to the jars. She picked up the jar of ashes, carrying it to the sarcophagus.
“Blessed Allah, cleanse my soul of impurities as has fire to these ashes.” She dumped the ashes into the mound and turned to the djinns, soot-faced. Genie held back snickers whilst Eden stared at her beau, like a tiger to a mouse. Genie ceased, giving a thumbs up to the child.
Wiping her face with the sleeve of her smock, Dhandi came to the large jar and dragged it towards the sarcophagus. She pulled off the stopper, the contents splashing against its walls.
“Blessed Allah,” she said as she cupped her hands into the water and poured it into the massive mounds of clay and dust, “Bind purity into my purpose as the water binds ash and clay together.”
The water streamed down the mounds like rivers down a mountain with every cup full. The child, seeing the water pool into the crevices of the mound, reached in and began mashing the soaked sludge into the still dry mixture of powder.
The massive mounds slowly became rolls of supple clay, Dhandi began rolling them into slender and long shapes, recalling times she had seen bakers roll their dough in various shapes.
“I’m the baker now,” she thought, hands mired with her work and tiny fingers working her own bit of magic into that clay, now taking form. Genie hovered towards her, looking at her handiwork.
“I vould call it, ‘Rhapsody in Orange, no.1’,” the blue skinned-djinn said, scratched his chin as a white-beard art critic with an Austrian accent.
“I would call it...weird,” Dhandi replied, looking at the misshapen form with over-elongated left arm that hung down past the kneecap like a gorilla’s arm. “I hope Amir’s right about the flower fixing it when it’s done. I think he’d be unhappy if his knuckles dragged.”
“Cool,” Genie said, “I’ll get ready to go.”
“Wait,” Dhandi spoke up, Eden suddenly grabbing Genie by the sash, “I still got to do one more thing.”
“Okay,” Eden replied, letting Genie go, who slingshot into one of the olive trees, “go ahead.”
Wiping her hands on the smock, Dhandi went to the water jar and dipped her hands in. Wandering back to the sarcophagus, water dripping through her cupped hands, she flew her hands open, the water splashing upon the golem.
“Blessed Allah, may I succeed,” she prayed, “with your aid and a pure soul.” She bowed, sliding the smock off and revealing her dark blue outfit. She turned to the djinns. “I’m ready.”
Eden beamed until she noticed the gauntlet tucked in her master’s sash.
“Baby,” her voice lowered, growing concerned, “where did you get this?”
“Get what?” Dhandi asked. Eden pointed to the gauntlet as if it was a spider. “Oh, Amir said I could use it.”
“ARE YOU CRAZY?” Genie shrieked. “That is a tool of EEEEEEVI-” Eden clasped his lips and he sputtered like a deflating balloon.
“Did Amir say that it make you crave for it, until there’s nothing left?” Eden adopted a worried scowl upon her face.
“But I’m not gonna offer my flesh to it,” Dhandi explained, “and I’m just gonna use it for emergencies.”
“Babe,” the green-skinned djinn knelt down to the girl, “its old owner, it drove him to insanity. I’m frightened that it might happen to you.”
“Eden, I’m not gonna let that happen.”
“You might say that now,” Genie added, in a high pitched voice, “but then you can’t sleep, soon your mind is not your own, and soon, you’re gonna have to face it, you’re addicted to glove.”
Glaring at Genie, Eden sighed. “Just be careful. With all this weird stuff happening, I’m surprised you’re not scarred for life.”
“Oh, Eden.”
Hades frowned as he fingered his little chess piece upon the game board. The Lord of the Underworld had enough reason to mope; repeatedly being foiled by that bone-headed demigod in his attempts for a hostile take-over the most desirable piece of mythological real estate, Mount Olympus. However, he suffered not for failed plans. It was something more dire, more agonizing than twenty Hercules.
The wife was home.
“Hade-poo,” the rather shrill calling of the Spring Goddess Persephone made him squirm in his seat, “I was thinking.”
“Really?” Hades grumbled, “What a stretch.”
“I was thinking we should spend more time with each other,” Persephone entered into the room, blonde hair shining. “I mean we’re married, but we hardly see each other.”
“Good thing.”
Persephone shot an icy glare at him. “What I’m thinking is maybe,” her tone became warm and bubbly, “we can go on a picnic, maybe in the Elysian Fields. Wouldn’t that sound super!”
“Yeah, super,” Hade clenched a tiny figure of Persephone, very tightly as if trying to crush into powder but to no avail. Persephone giggled buoyantly as she skipped out of the room.
“I’ll get the ambrosia and a basket. See you in an Athens minute!”
Hunched over his game board, Hade’s hair flamed up as he growled.
“Abduct a broad and she won’t give you a moment’s peace!”
The dark light glowed blue in the black shores of the River Styx. From the glowing mouth of the cave, a small form with a small bag upon her back climbed down the steps into the blue. Dhandi watched as a multitude of wispy apparitions congregated towards the shore, diving into the dark depths of the river. Dhandi winced. She didn’t know how to swim.
However, as she scanned it further, she noticed the longboat and certainly the line that was forming towards it. The boatman, a being of bleached bones, was letting them on. What made them so different from those who just dived in, Dhandi wondered.
Something glittered in the boatman’s skeletal hand. It was a gold coin.
“Eden,” she whispered to the bag, “I don’t have any money.”
“Don’t worry, bug!” Genie poofed into her hand, transfiguring into a gold coin. “I’m in the money!”
Dhandi smiled. “You’ll catch up, right?”
“Yep, just gonna be a distraction for a while. Now hurry up and don’t rock the boat.”
The girl clenched the Genie-coin in her small hand and rushed to the line, getting behind a translucent little girl, about five years-old. She looked at the child, wondering.
“She’s half my age,” Dhandi said to herself.
“Death is not discriminatory,” Amir spoke up. “It doesn’t care if you were five or twenty-five. It’s ultimately everybody’s end.”
“Except for genies,” Dhandi replied. “Eden once told me that she wouldn’t know what to do if I died. I told her that she would be able to be with Genie, but she said she didn’t want it at that cost.”
“She really cares for you,” Amir said.
“Yes. Maybe it’s because I wished it, but she has been the only one who stayed with me in a very long time and I never ever wanted it to end.”
“You wished you two would be together?”
“Forever.” Dhandi felt her back getting wet. “Eden, are you okay?”
“Yeah,” Eden from inside the bag sniffed, “I’m fine. Just got something in my eye.”
Dhandi then looked at her hand, also dripping with tears. “Are you crying too?”
“Yeah, just a little farklempt,” the Genie-coin replied, “also, you’re cutting off my circulation.” The girl unclenched her hand and wiped it against her skirt. Then a skeleton hand shot out in front of her, palm open.
“My turn, I guess.” Dhandi dropped the Genie-coin into the boatman’s hand. The boatman looked at it, clenched it tightly, Genie going great lengths not to make a sound, and motioned Dhandi to get into the boat.
“Thank you,” Dhandi bowed as she hopped into the boat, taking a seat next to the five-year old’s ghost. The boatman, seeing that the boat was loaded full enough, pushed off and drove the boat down the River Styx.
“Keep your eye out for Cerberus,” Amir advised. “He’ll be guarding Hades’ personal domain.”
“Who is Cerberus?” Dhandi asked.
“That would be Cerberus,” Eden pointed to the gargantuan three-headed Hell hound, snarling at the boat as it passed by a massive and intimidating gate. Taken back by the ferocious sight, Dhandi squirmed in her seat as she felt little hands squeezing her arm. She looked at the corner of her eye at the little soul, clinging to her arm.
“It’ll be okay,” Dhandi stroked the girl’s pale head, “...I think.”
The boat docked and its passengers flocked the shores into an unnaturally warm light. The sight Dhandi beheld standing at the dock was a vast field, flowers of the likes she has never seen in her Arabian home, aglow with that warm light not present in the rest of the Underworld. People basked in the warm glow, cheerful and in a kind of peace that they had never known in living.
Then Dhandi saw him.
A smiling broad figure with a face of unadulterated joy stood there in that patch of violets, waving to her. She reached out her hand into the light, the warmth spreading through her body, even at just that point. Dhandi smiled, giggling as every happy thought rushed into existence once again: the first time she saw her mother dance, the first sunrise and sunset she’d ever saw, the first curry she ate made by her Dad, meeting Eden and Genie...
“DHANDI!”
Dhandi pulled away from the light. “Eden?”
“Dhandi, don’t go into the light! We still have a lot to do, Sweetheart.”
“But I saw my dad...” Dhandi sighed, taking one more look at him once again. Her dad waved at her once more and she waved back despondently. “Maybe one day...”
She looked towards the dock. The boat had already left.
“How are we gonna get to the gate?” Dhandi asked. Suddenly, from the bag, a green streak shot out and landed on the water, as a green inflated life raft.
“All aboard!” the raft gurgled as souls reached and tried to grasp on to it. “Hey, no touchy!”
Dhandi stretched her leg over, watching for those souls and their clenching hands. She did not want to be dragged down into that disgusting water. Then she felt pressure around her ankle as she was halfway on the raft. She yelped as they jerked at her and pulled her foot into the river.
“Oh, no ya don’t!” Green oars reached out and whacked the souls, releasing their grip on the girl. Dhandi scampered on to the raft as the souls sank back down. She panted when she saw her foot. A terrified look on her face revealed her shock at her pale, shriveled foot as it swelled back to its healthy plumpness.
“That’s why this is a no swim zone,” Eden explained. “Are you okay?”
The girl nodded.
“You need to be careful down here. Not exactly the safest place for you right now.”
“I will,” Dhandi nodded. The djinn sprouted a propeller and the raft sped atop the surface of the River Styx. Dhandi held tight as they turned the twisting corners until one of the heads of Cerberus could be seen.
“There it is!” Dhandi pointed as Eden beached them upon the black shore. Leaning against the wall, the girl gazed at the Hell hound and the gate. “How are we gonna get past it?”
“We may not have to,” Eden replied, morphing back into her curvaceous form. “We’ll climb up and over.” The djinn pointed up the wall. The girl smiled as Eden took her into her arms and extended her legs, going up. Once they reached the apex of the wall, the djinn set Dhandi down, held on to the wall, and, pressing her nose, retracted her legs rapidly like a Venetian blind.
Dhandi peered over the massive grounds, her mouth gapping in awe. Bizarre flora of unknown genii blossomed amidst the jagged ebony, all in full bloom despite absent sunlight. However, her focus shifted a patch of pale yellow, oddly enough, glowing.
“Hey, I think I see them!” Dhandi pointed to the patch. Eden looked, summoning a pair of binoculars.
“Yeah, it looks like it,” the djinn agreed, banishing the binoculars into thin air. “Hold on to me.”
The girl obliged, clinging to Eden’s waist as the djinn swan dived off the wall. Dhandi shut her eyes as the pair fell. Suddenly, Eden summoned a pack upon her back, pulled the ripcord, and let open a parachute. Not feeling a crash but a gentle landing, Dhandi opened her eyes and slid off Eden.
“Come on, Babe,” Eden urged her charge on. “We don’t know how long Genie can distract them.”
Leaning against his pole, the boatman counted the fares. Twenty-seven went into the Elysian Fields that day, fewer people as the coins jingled in his bony hands. Lord Hades didn’t care much for the fields, as he was told. Frankly, the Underworld would be more fitting if everyone went to the same place, regardless of what they done or haven’t done whilst alive. Then again Charon wouldn’t get the kickbacks of ferrying those whose living families actually bothered to ensure a place in the Fields.
Suddenly, a coin chuckled.
With empty eye sockets, Charon the boatman watched as a sky blue djinn poofed from his hand and shuddered.
“You know, my emaciated chum,” Genie placed his chubby hands upon Charon’s shoulder blade, transforming into a blond, large-breasted makeup consultant in a pink apron, “a little bit of cocoa butter will soften those hands right up.”
The skeletal boatman growled and, whooping ala Curly, Genie sped away, wig and apron left behind in the dust.
“Great,” Charon fumed. “That’s going out of my paycheck.”
No longer seeing the boatman in site, Genie ran triumphantly until he bumped his face into the body of a snarling Cerberus.
Approaching the patch of Persephone’s Dawn, Eden suddenly gripped the shoulder of Dhandi’s shoulder before the child could make another step.
“What is it?” Dhandi asked.
“You might want to be careful,” Eden explained. “There might be a trap or something.”
“We haven’t encountered anything since we got over the wall,” Dhandi said, undaunted.
“She has good reason to be concerned,” Amir said. “The Persephone’s Dawn, while it can restore life, it can take it away.”
“Take it away?” Dhandi repeated. Eden looked at the girl, confused.
“Without the restraints by the ritual,” Amir continued, “the concentrated scent of the flowers here can cause your soul or mine or even both of ours to detach from your body without warning.”
“Take what away?” Eden asked Dhandi. The girl turned to Eden.
“Amir was warning me,” Dhandi explained. “We can’t breathe in the flowers’ scent; otherwise we’ll lose our souls.”
Eden considered this, suspicious.
“Mozenrath wouldn’t or would he?” she thought. She waved her finger and a diving mask appeared on Dhandi who appeared bewildered.
“Something to keep you from breathing it in,” the djinn explained. “Now, let’s do some gardening.” With that, she morphed into a trowel in Dhandi’s hand. Dhandi, clutching the trowel, ran down the path and towards the patch.
The almost light cream trumpets of the blossoms seemed to exude an aura of their own, almost like the magic sparkles of a genie’s tail. Dhandi set down her bag and knelt down to the bulbs. She drove the green trowel into the dirt, Eden chuckling.
“It kinda tickles,” the trowel replied, the girl smiling as the sounds of dirt brushing against metal continued. As the bulb was uncovered, Dhandi carefully pushed the trowel just beneath it, to uproot it.
“Amir,” Dhandi asked as Eden popped the flower up into the air and in to the bag, “how many do we need?”
“Two,” Amir replied. “One to be burnt and the other to lead my soul into the golem.”
Dhandi nodded as she began to dig up another one. The roots slid out as she applied leverage.
“We got ‘em,” Dhandi smiled as she packed up the last narcissus. Suddenly, the sounds of whooping and hellish howling could be heard in the garden.
“Time to exit stage left, kinder-ley,” Eden announced, morphing into coat-and-tails. Grabbing Dhandi’s hand, the pair hoofed towards the wall, surprisingly with a piano accompaniment.
“WHAT IS THAT RACKET!” Hades roared, obviously very perturbed. “WHO DO I HAVE MAIM TO SHUT THE DOGS UP?”
Hades flew open the door to find a strange blue...dog trainer?
“Oh, darling,” Genie announced with a Katherine Hepburn inflection, (when you think about it, he even looked like Katherine Hepburn, down to the riding pants and tweed jacket) wrapped an arm around Hades, “I can’t simply work with them. Of course, with that breed, a violent temperament is expected, but-”
Before he could continue, Hades grabbed Genie by the shirt collar. “Where’s my dog!”
Genie pointed to his left. Hades turned and his sickly pale gray skin burned red. Whimpering, Cerberus was hunched over, a plethora of horrendous pink bows tied to its six ears and various tufts of black fur. The flame atop the god’s head roared furiously as anger swelled inside him.
Genie looked over his shoulder to his right, watching as Eden and Dhandi scaled down the wall. He mouthed instructions such as “hurry and get out, don’t let him see you” as Hades’ grip burned Genie’s disguise off.
“Are you completely meshugeh!” Hades roared. “DID SOMEONE SENT YOU! IS...EVERYBODY...OUT...TO...SCREW...WITH...MEEEEEEEEEEE!”
Hades snarled, turning into a flaming pillar. Fire went all directions.
However, one was heading towards Eden and Dhandi. Dhandi watched as a stream of fire was shooting towards her and the Djinn.
“EDEN!” Dhandi shrieked, pointing at the fire.
Genie, panicking, poofed and reappeared in front of them. He then transformed into a shield and stood, back towards the flames.
“Boy, it’s getting’ hot in here!” he said to the pair, the intensity of the flames pounding against his back. A sudden spurt of the flame’s power pushed the trio back on the narrow strip of black land, Dhandi losing her balance. The girl shrieked, Eden turning her head and making her swift attempt to catch her before she splashes into the stagnant Styx.
Then Eden’s eyes widen in amazement. Dhandi was hovering just inches above the skin of the water.
However, the djinn’s reaction was not shared by the girl, judging by the alarmed look on her face and it was not because she was floating.
No, because Dhandi found out why she wasn’t supposed to look in a mirror. A shriveled and green face looked back at her.
“Dhandi!” The girl is pulled back to the shore, aided by a stretched out Eden. Dhandi’s lip trembled as she looked at Eden.
“I’ll look that when I’m dead?” she whispered. The sounds of flames letting up and Genie wheezing with exhausting entering her elfin ears, Eden wrapped her arms around her charge and sprouted a jet-back.
“Babe, we need to get out and quick!” Eden shouted to Genie. The ash covered djinn turned and coughed an affirmation. Shaking himself off, Genie revealed a tuxedo and jet-back.
“Come on, Octopussy,” he drawled in a Scottish brogue, “let’s motor.”
The roar of anachronistic jet-engines echoed in the cavernous Underworld as the djinns sped through, swerving past mammoth stalactites and stalagmites. The dim light of the world above flickered ahead. Suddenly, rubble flew at their tails as fireballs exploded into the stalactites. Shards of black rock showered on them as Eden, Genie, and Dhandi approached closer to the mouth.
Then the engines sputtered. There was that dreaded pause when one stops in mid-air and looks down for a moment before plummeting down with a crash and a tiny mushroom cloud of dust. They sure enough fell, but not without Genie transforming into a mattress and cushioning Eden’s and Dhandi’s fall. The djinn and her charge shook, regaining their equilibrium. Dhandi squinted as she turned to the lone source of natural light.
“There’s the entrance!” Dhandi pointed out as she grabbed Eden’s hand. However, the ground shook and the trio gaped in horror as the mouth of the cavern was closing, light waning between its massive teeth. Eden looked at the narrowing gap and then at Dhandi. She nodded her head at Genie and picked Dhandi up.
“Babe,” she said, hesitantly, “we’ll catch up. I promise.”
Before the perplexed child could answer, Eden turned into a baseball pitcher and, winding Dhandi up, threw her. The child sped towards the teeth, frozen in body and speech. Genie and Eden gape, minds on edge, as the child passed through the teeth. As they clamped shut, the djinns find themselves surrounded by shambling skeletons in armor, pointing spears at them.
“Uh, Avon calling?” Genie let out, meekly.
Chapter 13: Almost Over
Dhandi appeared dumbstruck as she stood in front of the now closed mouth of the cavern. Recalling the moments before it shut, Dhandi sniffled as she sank to the ground.
“Dhandi?” Amir echoed in her head, “Dhandi, the flowers won’t last long. We need to hurry-”
“I know, Amir,” Dhandi replied, sadly, “but they’re still in there and-and I don’t know if they’re okay.”
“Dhandi, they’re genies. They’ve probably been through things worse than this and they’ve came out of it all right.”
“Yeah, like there was this one time that this funny fat man took Eden from me and wished he was a giant,” Dhandi manages a small smile as she remembers, “but Genie was able to stop him and the man turned into a cockroach.”
“Yeah!” Amir replied, reassuringly if a bit confused by her “cockroach” comment. “If they can handle giants, they’ll probably get out of this place.”
Dhandi nodded as she reached into the bag on her back and stared at Eden’s bottle. “She promised and I’m gonna hold her to it.”
“Great,” Amir said, with a tone of urgency, “but now we really have to get back to the golem.”
Dhandi stuffed the bottle back in and jumped to her feet. “I hope Eden and Genie are okay.”
The djinns watched as Hades paced furiously in front of them.
“Now, I’m not a violent guy,” Hades said, calm but with evident rage backed up. “I hate violence. I’m just a god, trying to do his job despite it being completely unsavory and unsatisfying, but-”
Hades suddenly paused and stared at the djinns. “You know what? I’m just gonna cut to the chase.” Suddenly, his calm tone turned into rage. “ARE YOU COMPLETELY MESHUGEH! WHAT MADE YOU THINK IT WAS A GOOD IDEA TO TRESPASS ON MY PART OF THE DOMAIN AND-”
“-AND STEALING MY NARCISSI!” The shouting was joined by Persephone who looked unhinged and angry by the red that would rival a tomato and the rather feral appearance her hair took on. Hades turned and looked at his wife. “Well, they had an accomplice, a little one in- anyway, they must pay for stealing my flowers and taking advantage of his poor security!”
“My what?” Hades appeared dumbstruck.
Persephone glared at him. “Well, if you had taken the time to ante up our security, this wouldn’t happen so much.”
“Hello,” Hades snarled, “Underworld, land of the dead, that’s security enough!”
“Oh, tell it to those sorcerers came down and took my flowers to make their stupid elixir!”
“I shall, Miss-Hey-Let’s-Grow-Mystical-Flower-With-Freaky-Deaky-Restorative-Powers-And-Tell-Everyone-About-It!”
“Wha- How would you know anything about my social life if you’re busy with your ‘ooh, I’m gonna take over the freakin’ Mountain’?”
As the divine couple bickered, Eden and Genie looked at them and each other.
“A bit of marital tension we have here?” Genie asked. The pair of gods turned and glared at him icily. The Genie of the Lamp shrunk back a bit. “Uh, just out of curiosity. You two seem like a good, um, couple.”
“Ah,” Persephone sighed, wistfully, “if only it were like that.”
Hades rolled his eyes.
“I was young and creating flowers for Mother,” the goddess continued, as Genie and Eden summoned a floral chintz couch and a couple of cozy armchairs and sat down, taking notes as psychiatrists, “and then he came back in his black chariot and asked to run away with him and get married-”
“What the!” Hades yelled, getting annoyed. “I kidnapped you! You were kicking and screaming the whole way down!”
“But you were so romantic then. Nowadays, it’s all ‘can’t go do stuff with you, bubala, ‘cause I’m too busy trying to take over Olympus!’”
“Hey, I’m trying to get in my bit for the hostile take-over of cosmos! I don’t have time for your idea of that lovey-dovey schmaltz!”
“Wha-I’m down here for six months out of the whole freakin’ year with a bunch of DEAD PEOPLE because of YOU!”
“Okay,” Genie spoke up in a foreign accent as a squat elderly lady in thick glasses, “that’s great. You are letting out your conflictions out in the open, giving us a chance to explore it. Now, with the help of yours Dr. Ruth Genieheimer and her lovely assistant, we will confront these problems that get in the way of a healthy relationship.” Eden waved at them in a black pantsuit and a pair of very large, black cat-eyed frames and holding a pencil and ledger.
“Who said I wanted a relationship?” Hades pouted.
Genie firmly grabbed the Lord of the Underworld’s earlobe and pulled it down. “Denial only makes it worse, Yingl. Now, we’ll start with you. HELGA! Start ze MACHINE!”
Dhandi peered into the sarcophagus. She reached her tiny hand in. The clay is stiff and cool against her fingertips. She ran her fingers down its body. She stopped at its hand and rubbed it gingerly. A tiny, gentle smile peered in between her lips.
“Is it hard enough?” Amir asked.
“Yes,” Dhandi replied.
“Good. On the forehead, you take a stick and write that word. You remember what it is?”
“Yep.”
“You must get a fire going. Place one of the flowers on the golem’s chest. After you write the word, you burn the other flower and say the incantation; my soul will be led to the other flower.”
“Does it have to be big?” Dhandi asked.
“No,” Amir replied, “it doesn’t. It can’t burn up too fast or you won’t have enough time. Get going.”
Dhandi pulled her hand out of the sarcophagus and began to pick up sticks. She looked at the different sizes, but, reminded of her task, she resumed her hastened pace. She didn’t even notice the rustling in the limp grass.
She set the sticks down, piling upon the pallid soil. She knelt down beside it, closing her eyes and concentrating on the tiny ball of light that was forming in front of her. The ball roughly the size of an orange, she motioned it down to nest in the bed of kindling. The flames of the ball bit into the wood and crackled crisply.
As the small fire was growing, Dhandi stood up and rushed to the sarcophagus. A stick in her hand, she reached over to the golem’s forehead and began scratching at the hard clay.
Scrit, scrit, the sounds of wood against dried clay could be heard. Dhandi pulled her hand away and blew the dust into a tiny cloud, revealing the crudely carved MAA’ET. She then pulled the bag off and undid the hook that closed the flap. Inside, nestled next to Eden’s familiar pink bottle, was the pair of rather waning Persephone’s Dawns. As if holding a baby bird in her hand, she lifted one by the bulb and placed it on the golem’s chest, lying trumpet up.
“So, what are you gonna do?” Genie asked Hades and Persephone. The couple looked at each other as if they were about to eat cow dung.
“I’ll...try to respect your personal things,” Hades squirmed as he grumbled, “and...ugh, take of them better.”
“And I’ll try to take interest in your hobbies more,” Persephone replied, uneasily. “I mean, it could be fun being an anarchist.”
“Good,” Eden said, “a very good start to the road of healthy relationship-building.” She noticed Genie motioning her to leave. “So, you go and celebrate your newfound skill and we’ll just find our way out-”
“Hold up, babe,” Hades interrupted her. “There’s still the manner of condemning you and your accomplices for breaking and entering and stealing and generally being PAINS IN MY SIDE!”
“Hades, honey,” Persephone smirked, “they’re djinn. They do as their masters commanded. We can’t do anything about it, otherwise there’s gonna be red-tape and lawsuits against the Underworld. In any case, the one that we should punish will be down here any moment.”
Hades rolled his eyes, upon hearing this. Eden stared, bewildered. “Come again?”
“Oh, the little mortal that was with you. I can only assume she’s gonna used them to revive someone.”
“There’s a catch!” Genie shouted. “That Mozen-punk had something planned, I knew it!”
“Of course,” Hades grinned, “the Persephone’s Dawn can resurrect those from the dead, but at exchange of the resurrector’s own life. I mean, you can’t get something for nothing these days.”
Eden dropped her jaw, the onlookers, except for Genie, aware of the fury rising up in her green body.
“So if I were you, I would pick up a headstone for the kid on the way back up-” Hades looked at Eden, inquiring. “Oh, so the kid’s yours, huh?”
Eden shot a poisonous glare at the god. Hades winced.
“Whoa, if looks could kill.”
Persephone slinked towards Hades and stroked his chin. “Honey, why don’t you just let them go?”
Hades turned and looked at her with his “are you out of your mind?” pout.
“Like there’s any difference,” the goddess countered with a shrug. “They’re not of use down here anyway and beside, we need to...connect.”
Hades clicked his tongue, slightly intrigued by that innuendo but still feeling deprived by his unfulfilled lust for torture. The djinns crossed their fingers as the Lord of the Underworld turned his focus back to them.
“Fine,” Hades fumed, “get your tails out and stay out or become permanent residents, I don’t care.”
Hearing this, the djinns sped off towards the entrance as it opened its mouth. As they approached their exit, the sounds of plates crashing and bickering could be heard from the depths of the Underworld.
A cloud of smoke hovering above her, Dhandi quickly pulled the lid shut and rushed back to the side of the small pyre, its kindling near exhausted. Grabbing more sticks as she ran, she knelt back down and fed its flame. The fire hissed happily like a contented asp. She dug back down into her bag and pulled out the remaining flower. She looked at it, thoughts mingling in her brain.
Was it going to work? Would Amir even be happy, or would he even be Amir? What of that man that haunted her dreams? Would he leave and haunt Amir? Would he even leave?
“Dhandi,” Amir spoke up, as did the depleting fire, “go ahead.”
Dhandi took a deep breath and let the flower slide from her hand. The limp leaves caught fire first, the string of glowing embers working their way up the stem. The bulb crackled and popped, its juices hitting Dhandi in the face had she not flinched. The trumpet of the flower smoked and shriveled, a deathly scent rising from the pyre. Coughing, Dhandi recited:
“Sun rises and sets, creation’s way...
Soul’s ready, the vessel chosen...
Amir, his name and worthy one...
Truth upon his brow, rebirth his heart...
Clay into flesh, water into blood...
My life breath for this form’s...
Lead mine to his, the worthy one...
Amir...”
Dhandi grasped her throat. Something was tightening around her lungs and she couldn’t breathe. Her vision went out of focus as she collapsed on the graveyard soil. She could see a fuzzy green blob hovering above her, a sky blue one right beside it.
“Dhandi!” it said. “Dhandi, no! Don’t leave me, baby!”
“Amir?” Dhandi looked around in the desert sands. She spotted a small figure by a windblown palm. “Amir!”
The girl ran towards him. The boy was lying beside the palm, clenching his stomach.
“Amir,” Dhandi grabbed his shoulders, “what are you still doing here? I did the incantation and...Amir, you’re gonna have a body again- what’s wrong?”
Amir looked up at Dhandi. “He won’t let me.”
Dhandi’s eyes widen. She knew what he was talking about and the roar of power behind her confirmed it as she and Amir ducked the blue fireball crashing into the palm. Dhandi brushed herself off when she found herself, staring at the maliciously smiling young man in dark blue.
“So, cutie,” the young man smirked, perversely, “this is what you and your boyfriend were conspiring about then? Naughty kids, we’ll have to put a stop to that.”
Dhandi met his remark with a confident stance. The man grinned, his hand glowing.
“Wanna play ball?” His hand shot out and a malignant blue fireball hurled towards her. Dhandi cupped her hand and her own mage light rose and sped out, like a humming bird. The opposing lights crash together, the blue light grinding against the orange light violently. The orange mage light split like melon against an axe and the malevolent ball of light careened rapidly towards Dhandi.
The child leapt as it explosively created a crater in front of her. However, she had little time to rest as the man was retaliating quickly. Dhandi ran as debris and sand kick up with every blast discharged from the young man’s hand to the point she was covered in dust.
“That’s all you’re gonna do, rabbit?” the man asked, leering at the massive cloud that formed. “I mistook you as more of a threat. Oh, well.” The man ran in, hand glowing with that malicious power.
Dhandi’s eyes, in that cloud of dust, darted about their sockets, wary of the menace that lurked nearby, even such to not pay heed to the crater that laid in front of her. She yelped, nearly falling in. Her ears picked up the sound of sand crunching beneath the soles of boots. She fell to the ground, careful to not make a sound.
He approached, his footsteps stopping. He could not see that familiar brown and orange that he’d associated his quarry with. The young man snarled as he stepped forward, but stopped, seeing the crater. Would be folly for him to fall in, as he reminded himself upon balancing on one leg.
Suddenly, something swung against his leg, toppling him over and into the crater. The young man coughed as he scrambled to readjust himself.
Then came that faint hum of power and the glow of orange. From a corner of his eye, he found her, standing above him with a dangerous look on her face and a massive ball of mage fire just at the tip of his nose. He turned and looked at the Dhandi. Here he would have made one of his abrasive remarks, but, instead, he merely smiled.
“Leave Amir and me alone,” Dhandi said, her voice shaking, “forever.”
-
Amir stared up at Dhandi, covered in dust and stumbling towards him. The boy, shaking as he got up, held out his arms, allowing the girl to collapse into them.
“He’s gone, Amir,” Dhandi said, in great relief in spite of feeling drained. “You’re free.”
“Dhandi,” Amir sighed, holding her out at arms length and looking at her weary but confident expression, “I’m sorry.”
Dhandi, baffled, opened her mouth to ask why, but Amir’s small hand shot out and pressed against her nose and mouth. Dhandi struggled as she tore at Amir’s arms, the boy’s face expressionless and cold.
She couldn’t breathe.
“Dhandi!” Eden shook her mistress, desperately. “Please wake up!”
Genie stood there helplessly, unaware of what, or rather who, was stirring in the sarcophagus a few away.
Chapter 14: Homunculus
The clay stirred as the narcissus bloomed and its gnarled roots dug into the golem’s chest. Its misshapen fingers twitched as life flowed through them. MAA’ET glowed as changes occurred rapidly as if one was watching one of those nature films. The grey pigment of clay bled into flushed beige. Black, curly hair sprouted from its head like invigorated wheat after years of dormancy.
The flower rooted in its chest seemed to take on that same eerie glow as the word scratched on the golem’s brow. Then as quickly as it bloomed, the blossoms’ glow faded and the trumpet of petals began to turn a sickly brown.
Then the golem screamed. Hyperventilating, the creature scratched at the lid above him. The light filtered in through the seal, blinding him. His heart pulsated, beating violently against his ribcage. He grabbed his chest, feeling the frightened throbbing of his heart.
Then he felt it, the flower that took root in his breast.
“That thing gave me life.” His mind calmed and his breath became steady as he recalled why he was here. His frightened expression twisted into a smile as he wrapped his fingers around the narcissus and tore it from his chest. A twinge of pain made him winced, but his brain reassured him that he was very alive.
Because of her, that child, he thought. Time to repay her.
He slowly got up, pressing his arm against the lid and pushing it off. The sunlight, though dull in this clime and time, made him squint. Blinking, he saw two fuzzy forms before him. His eyes focused and his vision revealed to him the green-skinned djinn hovering just above the rather small and limp body of the girl in Brittany blue. A very cruel smile appeared on his face as he climbed out of the sarcophagus.
“It’s true what they say, Eden,” Mozenrath said aloud, “I leave them breathless.”
Chapter 15: Must Be Kind, Only to Be Cruel
Mozenrath stood there; the wilted Persephone’s Dawn clenched in his flushed and unblemished hand. Eden looked up and made the immediate comparison of the sorcerer to a cover boy of a romance paperback in her mind. At least until her eyes ventured below his navel.
“Ew!” she yelled. “Get some pants on! This is supposed to be a kid’s show!” Mozenrath glanced at himself, a smile of perverse amusement on his face, and then, kneeling, held out a hand. The fabric of Dhandi’s skirt rustled as a copy flowed from it, ripped off and wrapped itself around the young man’s waist.
“Nice trick,” Eden observed.
“Wanna see another one?” Mozenrath asked, mischievously. With a motion of his nimble fingers, dark blue and pink smoke surrounded Dhandi’s body and, before Eden could make a grab at her, the body vanished and reappeared in Mozenrath’s arms. The sorcerer looked at the child and, moving her arm aside, pulled out the gauntlet from her sash. He smiled triumphantly at the sight of his precious.
“You said she would not be harmed,” Eden seethed.
“Yeah,” Mozenrath cradled Dhandi in his arms, “but I also said she was expendable.”
Eden appeared to be on the edge of tears. The sorcerer grinned unsympathetically.
“Don’t be so sad, Eden. I’ve got good news. I’ve decided to adopt.”
Eden glared poisonously at him. “Leave her alone-”
“But I just can’t, you know,” Mozenrath cut her off. “I’ve grown so attached to her over time, but guess what? You’re gonna help me take care of her. After all, she wished it.”
The green-skinned djinn had an expression of fright and anger on her face.
“’Oh, Eden, I would, but I wish you could stay forever,’” the sorcerer mocked the girl’s inflection, down to the frightened gasp at the end of the sentence. “It’s so cute and so clever of her to wish for immortality that way. Now I’m curious. If she’d lived, would she have been stuck as a child for the rest of her life or would she be a brittle old hag when she realizes the horrors of immortality?”
Suddenly, Dhandi’s eyes opened and the child wrapped her arms around the sorcerer’s neck tightly. Only Mozenrath appeared aghast.
“OOOOOOH!” Dhandi squealed. “YOU’VE MADE ME A HAPPY GIRL!” The girl grabbed the gauntlet and pulled it over Mozenrath’s head. The sorcerer yelled angrily, struggling in the oversize gauntlet as Genie morphed out of his Dhandi disguise.
“Took care of brat boy,” Genie brushed his hands together. He turned to Eden and a concerned look appeared on his face. “How’s Dhandi? Is she okay?”
“She still has a pulse,” Eden said, grabbing the bag and pointing her bottle, “but she’s still unconscious. We need to get her out of here.”
“No one’s leaving!” Mozenrath yelled as he ripped the gauntlet off his head, revealing a very heated expression. He pressed his hand on the graveyard soil and, with a few well chosen words, mamluks rose from the ground and stood, awaiting the sorcerer’s order.
“Get me my gauntlet.”
With that, the undead legion began to lurch towards the djinns, very much in the manner of B-movie zombies.
“So you want to take them,” Genie asked, casually, “or shall I?”
“I’m gonna try to revive Dhandi,” Eden replied as she zipped into the bottle. “Hold them off the best you can!”
The bag at his red slippers, Genie turned to the swarm of mamluks and grinned. “Let’s get it on.”
With that, the sky blue djinn morphed into a credible Bruce Lee, down to a pageboy hair cut and a yellow tracksuit, and the sounds of battle cries and “HIYA!”s filled the ominous air of the cemetery.
From inside the bottle, a room of comfortably curved, cushioned pink walls and plump cushions and pillows of every know color and some unheard of, its tenant gently shook her master’s small body.
“Come on,” Eden whispered desperately to Dhandi’s lifeless body, “come on, don’t leave me.”
No reply came from the girl’s lips. Fighting back tears, Eden tilted her master’s chin up and, pressing her lips against hers, blew air into the girl’s body. The djinn withdrew her lips, magic lingering on Dhandi’s lips.
Suddenly, the child coughed.
“Dhandi!” Eden hugged her as the girl slowly sat up.
“Eden,” Dhandi asked, quietly, “Amir was the bad guy, wasn’t he?”
An uneasy pause occurred between the two as Eden regarded her young charge.
“Dhandi,” she finally said, “he tricked us all.”
Dhandi looked around the bottle, in awe.
“You’re in my bottle,” Eden said quickly. “To keep you safe.”
“Where’s Genie?” the girl asked, covering her ears, the sounds of cries and bodies landing from outside pounding very loudly in her eardrums.
“He’s outside, fighting him.” Eden grabbed Dhandi’s shoulder. “Listen, we have to go. He’ll be after you if we don’t.”
“Why?” The answer came when Eden pointed to the gauntlet nestled in the girl’s sash. Suddenly, an uninterrupted scream pierced their ears. Suddenly, Dhandi got up and began to jump up.
Eden stared at her. “Babe, what is it?”
“We gotta get out there and help him out!” Dhandi replied. “He might need some.”
“Dhandi! The guy who’s out there is Mozenrath!”
Dhandi stopped jumping. “Who?”
“Mozenrath...he is a very powerful sorcerer and he’s one of Aladdin’s worse enemies,” Eden explained, apprehensively. “If he doesn’t show mercy to a genie, what are the chances he’ll show it to a little girl?”
Dhandi took Eden’s hand and clasped them. “Eden, you told me not to be scared and not to let bullies mess with me. Please.”
Dhandi then let loose her puppy-dog pout. Shaking her head, Eden frowned, but then outreached her hand towards the end of the stopper.
“Stay by me,” Eden turned to her charge, “and we’ll show him what we can do”. A look of hope appeared on Dhandi’s face as she grabbed Eden’s hand.
Piles of mamluk parts were strewn across the graveyard like causalities of a great battle and all that stood were Genie as Bruce Lee and Mozenrath who stood there smugly, reminded that genies couldn’t kill.
“You have threatened my beloved and her master for the last time,” Genie said, voice out of sync as the bottle behind his leg made a popping sound. “Prepare to be karate-chopped.” Genie then struck an impressive stance that would make a ten year-old gape in awe.
Mozenrath rolled his eyes as he held out his hand and the earth began to shake. Genie’s legs began to wobble and droop like Silly Putty. As he dragged them back up, a terror emerged upon his face and his jaw dropped. The familiar crystal was propped right behind the sorcerer.
“It’s-it’s-it’s-” Genie stammered, frightened.
“Ix,” Xerxes hissed as he came from behind the crystal and rested on his master’s shoulder.
“About time you show up,” Mozenrath said to his familiar, “I like an audience. IX-TA-ow!”
The sorcerer was cut short by a small rock in flight and, swiftly turning, found Dhandi, a few feet away and armed with a tiny fistful of rocks. However, his focus fell upon the gauntlet, tucked in her sash. Smiling predatorily, he made a motion with a hand and then a pile of mamluk parts began to crawl towards Dhandi’s legs. The girl turned green, watching the rotting arms and legs piece together until they were whole. The rocks in her shivering hands clicked together, waiting to be thrown but denied.
Suddenly, an ululating battle cry was heard and a chakram zoomed through the air, knocking down the mamluks that were making their way toward the child. It stopped, caught by Eden in bronze armor.
“You go, my warrior princess!” Genie cheered.
“Enough with the interruption,” grumbled the very agitated Mozenrath. “IX-TA-hmm!” Before he could say the final syllable, Genie zapped a big gray strip of duct tape over his lips. As the sorcerer struggled with the very sticky tape, the mamluks continued their swarming. They leapt at the djinns and the child, Eden and Genie delivering punches and karate kicks.
“Hey!” Suddenly, something tugged at Dhandi’s sash. She turned and there was the eel with the gauntlet in its toothy jaws. The eel snickered as he began to swim away, but, as if reaching out to pluck a tomato, the girl dropped her rocks and grabbed the familiar by the neck. The eel squirmed and writhed in the girl’s grip.
“Give it back!” Dhandi told Xerxes, gripping at the gauntlet’s fingers.
“No!” Xerxes gurgled. “Stupid boy.”
Whether retaliation at that comment or just a move ahead, Dhandi squeezed a little hard and, as the eel’s eyes bugged out and its face turned blue, the gauntlet dropped out of his jaws. Throwing the gasping eel aside, the girl picked up the gauntlet and looked down the sloping crevasse below.
Suddenly, a mamluk backed into her roughly and the child tumbled down the slope, screaming.
“Dhandi!” Eden yelled as mamluks continued to pile on her and Genie like undead quarterbacks.
As has been said before, the story would have ended with Dhandi plunging to her death at the bottom of that ravine the Grecian cemetery overlooked, but those who expecting that will be disappointed as once again good reflexes or luck had the girl clinging to a massive root protruding from the face of the ravine. The gauntlet in her teeth, Dhandi reached her tiny hands towards the ledge.
“Don’t look down, don’t look down,” she chanted to herself. Against her own advice however, she glanced down and her body began to shiver. Her legs dangled in the air, abysmal darkness below that seemed ready to swallow them. Groaning with exertion, she pulled herself up, when somebody grabbed her by her shirt collar. She swung her focus from the ravine to the pallid and slender face of Mozenrath who held her above his head with one hand. The sorcerer’s mouth was twitching and a rectangle strip of sore, pink skin surrounding his ample lips was present.
“Drop it,” he snarled quietly. Dhandi stared nervously at the young man, who remarkably managed to resemble an irate jackal. “Drop it!”
Hearing him bark that command, Dhandi opened her mouth, but before it could drop into Mozenrath’s free hand, she swung her leg, hitting the sorcerer squarely in his jaw. His grip released, Dhandi scrambled to the gauntlet on the ground, grabbed it and scurried along the narrowing ledge at speed likened to that of a frightened squirrel. It wasn’t long until she ran out of space to run as she found that she had to cling against the face of the ravine on tiptoes. She stared up, realizing that she couldn’t climb that high to the ledge above where she heard battle sounds.
“Nowhere to go.” Dhandi turned her head around towards Mozenrath, leaning against the slope. His angered expression had turned into a very slick smirk. “And you were doing so well, Rabbit.”
Dhandi shivered at the end of that sentence as he extended a hand. “You give me the gauntlet and I promise I won’t hurt you...badly.”
The girl looked at him, not reassured, but let out a yelp as the soil beneath her toes crumbled slowly. Mozenrath snorted impatiently, his own grip slipping. “I seriously doubt you’ll get such a generous offer from the jagged rocks below. Come on. Give it to me.”
Dhandi gazed at the sorcerer. Sweat was rolling down his brow and his lithe and narrow legs shivered, though a great deal were covered by Brittany blue cloth. She knew it. He was exhausted by his magicking from before. She then glanced at the gauntlet.
“You cause so much trouble, you know that,” she said to the gauntlet. She looked at Mozenrath, his hand still outstretched. She then stretched her own hand out. The sorcerer had a look of fevered anticipation, about to reunite with a beloved, but then his eyes widen with pure petrifying terror.
She dropped the gauntlet.
Mozenrath gaped at Dhandi, dumbstruck. The girl, realizing what she had done and that she had nowhere to run when he would recover, let out a scream as the soil beneath her gave way. She shut her eyes, praying Eden would hear her and soften her fall or even sprout wings and fly away, back to home. But she didn’t fall. In fact, somebody caught her by her shirt.
Unfortunately, when she looked up, she found that somebody was Mozenrath, struggling as he dug his hand into the soil and began to climb up the slope. Thoughts raced through Dhandi’s head. Why did he save her when moments ago he had threatened her and she had dropped his gauntlet?
Her mouth formed the word “Amir”. The sorcerer glared at her, black eyes devoid of warmth.
“Don’t think I’m merciful,” Mozenrath said harshly, throwing her maliciously to the ground as they finally reached the ledge and climbed over to the more stable ground. “I just want to kill you myself.”
Before Dhandi could reply, Mozenrath kicked her in the stomach.
“Do you realize how painful it has been for me?” he snarled as the girl grabbed her stomach. “To go through what I have for this, just to have some snot-nosed kid take it away?”
Not hearing a reply, he grabbed Dhandi by the hair and dragged her across the ground. The girl writhed in pain, trying to hold back tears.
“Not to mention how boring it gets, listening to your problems and your stupid hero worship.” He slammed Dhandi against the face of the slope. The girl let out a moan along with a stream of tears running down her chin.
“The worst part,” Mozenrath hissed as he pulled the battered Dhandi towards his face, “Amir really liked you.” His tone quivered from exhaustion. “You, an undeserving, weak child who wasted the powers of a genie when she could have been great.”
“Not...true,” Dhandi panted as her bruises upon her face and body stung from her sweat. “I...am...strong...Amir-”
“DON’T CALL ME THAT!” Mozenrath screamed, slamming the child down on the ground and wrapped his ashen hands around her neck. She rasped as the enraged sorcerer squeezed tighter, hair wild like asps emerging from a hole and face maroon with wrath. Her arms flailing, Dhandi’s hand spread. Strength flowed to it, abandoning all other muscles in her body. Her vision growing hazy, she swore she saw a light.
Bright, orange-yellow, and round, like the sun. But there was no sun in that graveyard, only the morose gray clouds.
Then came an explosion and a rumbling. The sounds of rocks plummeting around them filled Dhandi’s ears. She felt the grip loosened around her neck as the ground gave way and the pair fell.
Fabric flickered in the air as they tumbled against the face of the ravine. Dhandi closed her eyes.
“Please stop,” she said to herself. She felt so tired. How could she stop in mid-air? These thoughts came to a halt as something bumped into her path and a new set of thoughts arose. Was it rocks? No, this was soft. Maybe she died on the way down, but then why did she still feel so sore?
“Is she gonna wake up?”
“I don’t know. Gosh, look at those bruises. How can he even do that to her?”
Groaning, Dhandi stirred and, looking up, smiled at Eden and Genie. The djinns beamed broadly and tearfully back as the bandaged girl laid on a large cushion, on the floor of Eden’s comfortable bottle.
“Dhandi!” Eden, hovering above the girl, swooped down and hugged her gingerly yet joyously. “You scared us! You were falling and Genie caught you and- oh, you’re alive!”
“Eden,” Dhandi tried sitting up, but met with a twinge in her body, “is he still, well, is he...”
Eden looked at Genie.
“Kid, he fell from a very high cliff,” Genie said, uneasily. “I couldn’t find him or even any teeny trace of him.”
Dhandi feel silent for a moment. She stared at the purplish bruises on her legs and arms. She was lucky up to this point. Every person she had ever met didn’t seem capable of violence. Asfour and his gang wouldn’t do this to her, even if they wanted to and those funny men didn’t even put a scratch on her, even when they put her cage and took Eden from her that one time. The look Mozenrath had on his face when she dropped his gauntlet was like the one she had when her dad didn’t wake up that day. It seemed like his whole life revolved around that thing of brown leather.
That’s what it must be like when you give your body to that gauntlet, she thought. It’s just so sad.
Then she shrugged. No, why should I worry about someone who tried to kill me? He lied to me and I...I liked him. No, I liked liked him. I wanted to be with him and he just used me.
Her shoulders drooped. But he even said that he liked me. No, it was just...I’m confused now.
“Dhandi?” Dhandi looked up at Eden. “We’re going home.”
“Home,” the child repeated with a small smile. Eden cradled Dhandi in her arms and, holding Genie’s big blue hand, smoked out of the bottle. Once vacated, the interior of the bottle began to quiver, in the shaking grip of its tenant’s master. They were going home.
“Master!” The eel hovered over the rubble at the bottom of the ravine. Mamluks tumbled down the slope as Xerxes pointed his fin towards the piles. “Dig!”
Moaning and groaning of undead exertion echoed in the cavernous gorge as mamluks tossed aside boulders and rocks. Xerxes sniffed about, looking for any trace of his master. His bulbous eyes bugged out further as a nearby pile emitted a groan and shook.
“Dig there!” he instructed the mamluks. The undead servants swarmed over to that pile and began throwing rocks aside. As a layer of rock was thrown aside, a quivering body of pale skin and blue cloth laid there, curled into a ball. Xerxes swam in for a closer look.
“Master?” Mozenrath shot a glare at his familiar. His ashen face was scratched, a massive dark blue bruise was throbbing at the upper corner of his brow, and his lips cut and a stream of blood was flowing from them and several other places on his face. In spite of this, he was smiling very dangerously.
“Master?” Xerxes repeated, curious. The sorcerer held up the gauntlet in one hand. He then held up his right hand and slid the gauntlet on. He held his gloved hand close to his chest and then his right arm began to quiver violently. The sounds of flesh being torn off emerged from the gauntlet. Mozenrath’s face contorted in agony, despite all attempts to hide it.
Then, as quickly as it began, it stopped.
Xerxes watched as Mozenrath peeled a corner of the gauntlet off, exposing pure bleached bones. The sorcerer’s lips twitched and then he let out a chuckle. That chuckle became a laugh and soon the hysterical laughter could not be contained with him and it spilled out into the ravine like blood in a fresh, deep cut.
Chapter 16: Paper Memories
The new moon hovered above the slumbering populace of Agrabah, though in one dilapidated hovel, near the piers, the tenants were wide awake. Removing a brick from the loosely mortared floor, Dhandi knelt down and began to fold the Brittany blue shirt and the dark blue skirt very neatly. She glanced into the hole momentarily and, setting the skirt aside, reached her tiny, bandage-plastered hand in. She pulled out a tiny clay jar, a strand of shells of different sizes tied to a piece of twine, and a scroll of loosely rolled up paper.
Dhandi held up the strand of shells to the dimly burning oil lamp. Someone was supposed to have this one morning. He hadn’t gotten it yet and she scolded herself for not bringing it with her when she saw him again briefly today. She sat the bauble back down and picked up the jar. She shook it, something softly rattled inside. She pried the cork off and, holding out her palm, let a tiny, green stale gumdrop roll onto her hand.
She liked this one, the day Eden and Genie came into her life as well as the discovery of the joys of pizza and gumdrops and that the both tasted pretty good together, that odd mix of sweetness and tartness along with spiciness that still mingled on her tongue. Dhandi had told Babkak about it one day, though she couldn’t explain those rather scarce foods very well and it left the round boy scratching his head.
She dropped the gumdrop back in the jar and shoved the cork back in. Setting the jar back down and returned to folding the outfit. Pressing away the creases and wrinkles the best her fingers could do, she placed the dress into the hiding place. She looked around cautiously, like a thief hiding her gold. She peeked through the drab cream curtain behind her. Eden was talking to Genie, a serious look on her face.
They’re probably talking about me, Dhandi thought, placing her hand on the scroll. They’re probably still scared about what happened. I am.
Pulling the curtain closed, she picked up the scroll and unrolled it. Crayon and charcoal pictures of crude stick figures in orange, green, and sky-blue rested on the pages. Dhandi smiled as she looked at each picture- one of the orange and the green figures hovering over the sea of bluish-green scribbles and white triangles, another of that same orange figure being held by the sky-blue one. However, her smile slowly faded as she came upon the picture of the orange little figure with one of dark blue, a scribbled ball of orange and yellow hovering just about the pair.
Dhandi wiped her eyes with the sleeve of her brown coat as she crumpled up that picture with one hand.
“Dhandi,” Eden’s voice could be heard from the other side, “getting ready for bed?”
“Yeah,” Dhandi sniffed, as she replaced the brick and picked up the bunches of paper. She stood up, blew out the oil lamp, and pass through the curtain.
I'm waiting for you.
I kept my fire inside my ribs.
And I put my hand on my cheek
And counted by seconds your absence and you never came.
The whirlwind of scarves of reds, pinks, oranges, and violets swirled together as the luscious feminine figures twirled and shook, as rapidly as the music bid them. The onlookers clapped as the dancers executed tight and controlled moves with grace that would make the most poised gazelle seem like a clumsy cow. A roaring fire lit up the night, the stars twinkling brightly in the dark violet sky.
I wish - I wish I never fell in love.
I need to know if you are upset
Or if somebody else occupies your heart
From my hopelessness, you make me say.
The music began once more as the woman drew back her hand and slowly merged back into formation, circling an invisible point in the middle of the large intricately embroidered carpet. The women raised their hands slowly, their fingers lightly touching the ones across from their owners, all of them swaying to the soft beat of a drum. They twirled in the circle, their skirts swirling against their legs. The wind seemed to blow much cooler now, the fire crackling as their flames whip and writhe about.
The absence will continue forever
And I ask myself what did I gain
From my mistake.
Only you are my problem.
The tempo increased, the women springing up and trilling. Men joined in, dressed in darker, richer shades of the familiar hues. They contorted as they leapt, the music guiding their every erratic movement. The women twirled around their bodies suggestively, their partners suddenly lifting them up into the air. The airy fabric of their skirts fluttered.
A sole figure in dark blue danced around a woman in orange, placing his hand on her chest. He held her close, panicking his partner as she thrashed against him like a frightened bird against a cage. He pressed his sallow lips against hers, tears running down her tanned cheek. Muffled shrieks exit the woman’s lips to the audience that doesn’t bother to look up.
Then he stared straight out into the crowd, towards a child with messy hair and dressed in orange. The sickly pale face turned from the limp body of his partner, towards the child, a malevolent smirk appearing. The girl shivered as he approached closer. Her body froze, scared to make a move but her mind screaming “just don’t sit there! RUN!” into her ear in deafening tones. The pale young man leaned down to her, smiling, cruel intentions hidden behind that grin. He placed his hand upon her left cheek, his fingers softly drumming against her temple.
She could feel something raking against her right cheek. Praying it was just his hand, she looked at the corner of her eye. To her horror, it was a skeleton’s hand, worse of all it was his. She let out scream, the man undeterred however. He merely chuckled softly as he placed a kiss upon her cheek.
I wish - I wish I never fell in love.
I anguish on the hot part of the fire.
My brain is absent from concentration
With each breath I count your steps
But then the child turned and looked at his face, growing more intrigued by this young man in dark blue. She reached her hands up to his slender face and ran her fingers down his face, gingerly. The young girl tilted her chin up and placed a kiss upon his full lips. The young man returned it.
With each little letter I count your conversations with me
I am in this mood morning and night.
And they saw me and they said I have become insane.
Mozenrath’s eyes opened like a pair of jaws. He panted as he shot up on his divan. His curly hair was the casualty of bed head and his sheets were soaked in sweat, though the breeze had brought in the usual cold desert night air. He shook his head as he mumbled incoherently and worriedly to himself. Several things had shocked the Lord of the Land of Black Sand in his existence; the most shocking had been the discovery of several frilly dresses in his closet that evening when he had returned. This had blown it away like a palm leaf in a sand storm.
The End.